Behind Killer's Eyes
by Mechalich
Summary: Hyuuga Neji's exploits and developement as he is trained by the dragon ninja Draci Xi and encounters politics, companions, and challenges from Naruto's lesser known shinobi countries. Rated R for violence in far later chapters. Completed 62004!
1. A Day of Screams

Author's Intro: This piece of Naruto Fanfiction begins somewhere in chapter 185-195 of the Manga, where it would precisely fall is impossible to determine, but those who have not read up to that point in the manga probably shouldn't read this. It is designed to explore the character of Hyuuga Neji assuming he hadn't died of his wounds after defeating Kidomaru and was instead saved by the Dragon Ninja Draci Xi. Neji is the only original character I intend to focus on, and while others will appear early on and occasionally as the Xi and Neji return to Konoha, all other events and characters will be original. This story is intended to not conflict with the main Naruto plot in any fashion, but to act in the same timeline tangentially to it. Draci Xi and Neji will be the principle characters, and the ones whose viewpoint is shown, but others will appear along the way. While this story may eventually contain a romantic element, there will be no pairings between existing characters.  
  
Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
A Day of Screams  
  
The clouds moving slowly overhead, Draci Xi cruised steadily through the forest in the northern portion of the Fire Country. He moved silently from tree to tree, movements lithe and conservative in energy. There was no hurry to his motion, he traversed from branch to branch with a casual attentiveness, watching. Watching, but not finding anything.  
  
Xi was disconcerted by this. His senses were keen, and few things could hide from them. The woods were too quiet. He was only a few miles from the border with Sound country, and there was no activity. The forest was simply natural and empty. It shouldn't be like this, Xi knew that much for certain. Not with that crazed Uchiha and his even more psychotic Mist companion showing up in Konoha not a week past. After all that's happened recently the area ought to be swarming with ninja activity. Yet there had been nothing for days. No Sound probes came across the border, no counterstrikes were sent from Konoha. Well, that much is really not all that surprising anymore, Xi decided. Konoha can't spare the manpower on a village that's basically gone. Aside from the big names: Orochimaru, Kabuto, those four barrier jutsu wielders, I doubt there could be more than ten renegades left to represent the Sound, considering how many have been killed. Konoha probably is banking on me to deal with any serious probe if the Sound are foolish enough to try anything. Xi sighed, of course, blind me, Konoha's probably right. I certainly have been putting on the role of Sound ninja exterminator.  
  
The lack of Leaf or Sound ninja was therefore not a huge factor in Xi's worrying. The absence of ninja of other stripes, even if they were ostensibly not involved in the conflict, was far more troublesome. Xi considered the matter with no small amount of shadowy trepidation. There should be scouts from the lesser countries, Rain, Grass, and Waterfall, and where are the shinobi from the Hidden Village of Stone? I haven't spotted any slinking about and investigating. A few days ago there were plenty of them, brash chuunins hunting rogue Sound ninja, and spies all over the place. It kept me busy keeping track of all the meddlers. Not that I'm not a meddler myself, but there's no need for a crowd, yes? More than anything else, the lack of Stone ninja was the most troubling thing. With Konoha's recent setbacks the Hidden Village of Stone had at least the advantage of shear numbers on every other Hidden Village. The Northern part of Fire Country was prime infiltration territory for Stone scouts and spies, and a full team of four had been present not more than three days past. Hmm... Xi wondered. Of all the shinobi countries, the great nations of Stone, Cloud, and Water sent no ninja to the Chuunin exam. I've suspected that the leadership was somehow forewarned of Orochimaru's plans for some time now. If they've withdrawn their people now... Has that cursed bastard finally made his next move?  
  
That last thought brought Xi up short. I need to tell Konoha this, he realized. The information might not be worth much by itself, but if my speculation is correct, well then the debt they owe me will be tremendous.  
  
A sharp flash of remembrance broke that gluttonous thought. A feeling of vigorous dread surged within Xi as he recalled the scheduled movements he had spied in Konoha. Wait-He recalled the information with a sick feeling. Wasn't a team of four jounin supposed to return from a mission by passing through this area today? Has it begun, have I already missed this? Xi cursed himself for being so unobservant, and considered what he might do now.  
  
He did not have long to consider options, as his worst fears would be confirmed only minutes later by a tremendous crash to the northeast. Something massive had just struck the ground with enough force that the sound was loud as a thunderclap.  
  
Something has happened. Damn it! That sound was not close! Xi was already ascending upwards in a series of swift jumps between branches as his mind registered these thoughts. With perfect precision he channeled chakra to his feet so that the last jump carried him high into the air.  
  
Xi shot up high into the sky, clearing the highest treetops by two hundred feet or more, a screaming ascent that left him terribly exposed but at least gave him a good view. Yet even with a perspective that normally only belonged to the birds, Xi could see nothing beyond a great cloud of dust off in the distance to the northeast.  
  
"Damn it!" Xi barked under his breath. "Never convenient, is it." His hands flashed rapidly through a series of complex seals. No dust is getting in my way! "Dragon's Eye no Justsu!"  
  
The cry of the completed jutsu had no visible affects, except on one part of Xi's body. In a lightning-fast transformation his brown eyes shifted, and changed. His pupils shifting and morphed, becoming slits like a lizard's, but shaped rather more like viscous fangs. His irises turned blood red, and a secondary iris, a more brilliant red this time, formed out of the whites of his eyes, outlining the first. The dragon's eyes. A powerful justsu form this technique, used to freeze hearts with otherworldly spirit fear from the baleful gaze, a technique part ninjustsu and part genjutsu, and deadly. For now though, Xi needed the dragon's eyes only to heighten his vision to pierce the dust far off.  
  
The dust parted between that strange otherworldly gaze, which rendered the world into a frightfully red and hungry vision. The scene that greeted Xi in its discolored form was shocking. A gigantic human form, own perhaps rising as high as the great height he was now reaching at the peak of his jump, had crashed face first to the ground miles distant in the forest. He's wearing a leaf forehead protector! Xi rapidly processed that and other critical pieces of information, knowing he would sink back to the treetops shortly. No flak jacket? A genin? From there XI could fill in the rest of the puzzle while he fixed the direction and distance of the incident. The Akimichi clan uses multi-size techniques; there was one from that clan who was partnered with that shadow-jutsu user who got made chuunin, which must be who he is. Let's see, that genin's name was...Chouji!  
  
As he fell back down to the treetops Xi considered the dour implications of what he had seen. I did not think that genin could use that level of justsu. He must be fighting a powerful foe to push the limits that far. Curses! Konoha's that short of ninja? It was a new piece of information; one Xi assuredly did not like receiving. He knew enough of the 5th Hokage's personality and temperament to recognize that she would not risk a group of genin on some trivial matter. Something very bad had happened to cause what he had seen.  
  
As his feet touched the treetops Xi was already channeling chakra through his body to hurl himself at maximum speed towards the direction he had marked. He went for many reasons. One was simply the hunger to know everything that he had acquired while serving as a spy. Beyond that he recognized this as another opportunity to increase the debt Konoha owed him, and a dragon ninja is always concerned with collecting debt. Finally, though he would never have admitted it, XI knew he was the only ninja close enough to aid these genin, that reinforcements were to far to summon, and he simply would not stand aside and see genins die. Leave wars to those who have hatreds to fight for, and let the youth's learn something of life's lessons before being shackled to its woes.  
  
Xi blasted from branch to branch at dangerous speed, conserving his chakra by staying slightly out of control, as a man who runs down a hill lets his momentum carry him. It was a reckless move, even if he had the confidence not to fall, for he could come up on enemies without warning this way. Few ninja would have dared to converge on enemies unknown this quickly. Draci Xi, a dragon ninja, was different. To careen in recklessly offered the greatest chance of getting the first blow, and that was all he would need.  
  
For a long time there was nothing but a sea of leaves that flashed steadily by Xi. His resolve was ironclad as he rushed headlong upon the path to battle, a killing jutsu ready to unleash upon whatever he encountered. There was no fear of battle in him, a veteran of many, many fights; he was waiting for the moment to come.  
  
Light flooded through a great gap in the sea of trees, revealing the sun and sky once again. The site of battle had met Xi.  
  
Xi blasted into the opening like a stone loosed from a sling, spinning and searching for a target. A target he would not find.  
  
Too late. Dammit. Xi stopped himself against a tree, hard enough to put a great gouge into the bark from the force of it. In a clearing devastated by an obvious and grand ninja battle, the battle was now done. Two youths lay on the ground, unmoving. One was the leaf genin, and the other... the sound barrier.  
  
Xi dropped to the ground. The scene was universally unappetizing. He walked over to Chouji's body first. A quick yet thorough check confirmed his initial view. Dead, looks like from pushing all his organs past the bursting point. He must have used a suicidal technique. Commendable that, if unfortunate.  
  
The sound ninja was a far more interesting study for Xi. He recognized the overweight youth as one of the four ninja who had created the barrier that enclosed the Third Hokage and Orochimaru during the invasion. Dead now, Xi remarked. An impressive display by the genin. A closer look caused Xi to upgrade that assessment significantly and immediately. This wretch had a second level cursed seal? Even I might have some trouble with that level of power, and this genin took him down? Konoha's a much tougher nut than I expected, and I doubt this was in Orochimaru's plans.  
  
His examination of the bodies done, Xi didn't waste any more time. He knew that the other three barrier users were almost certainly ahead of him. Orochimaru would certainly have sent the entire team of four. The battle sight was ruined; there was no clue as to which way any others had gone. Still it was obvious that the genin had been pursuing the Sound ninja. They are headed to the Sound Border.  
  
Xi gritted his teeth as he launched himself onward again. Three sound nins, probably all with level two cursed seals, and no other information. That really angered Xi, not knowing anything more. He'd been a spy and assassin long enough to hate engagements with enemies he knew nothing about. The worst part was knowing that several other genin were surely involved. Tsunade probably put that shadow-user chuunin in charge of whomever she sent; he was on the poor dead genin's team. I have to bank on them accomplishing something too, since there's no way I'm fighting three on one against these freaks.  
  
The situation had changed, and now Xi moved more cautiously. The abilities of a cursed seal were unpredictable, and he could not count on perfect effectiveness with his lethal attacks like he might with more normal opponents. So he constantly searched for signs that ninja had moved through the area. With the trail obscured by the damages wrought by the multi-size jutsu battle, XI was forced to zigzag back and forth searching the trail. He cursed every lost second as he did so, he knew that every moment spent searching placed his enemies further away and reduced his chances of arriving in time to accomplish anything.  
  
Long minutes passed. At a few points Xi thought there was shouting or other loud noises to the north, but nothing he could focus on.  
  
It might not be his fight, but Draci Xi was not one to stand aside and watch without seeing. The Sound ninja were disgraceful wretches, and he wanted to see them wiped out, indeed he had done more work toward that goal than perhaps any other ninja. As the green leaves and brown branches flew past in an unending verdant stream Xi's eyes searched hurriedly. There must be a sign, pursuing genin aren't stealthy enough to hide themselves from me.  
  
Then he caught it, a bootprint that sank into the bark. A bit too much chakra? An almost-smile spread over Xi's face. That was all it took to give him a direction, and his highly trained eyes followed other minute clues with ease from that point, down a slapdash trail through the branches.  
  
The choice between caution and speed was a difficult one. It was unlikely that many traps lay ahead, but the Sound ninja could have turned and fallen upon the genin's at any point. If he must fight three cursed seal users at once Xi knew he absolutely would have to kill one in the very first blow, something he was not nearly confident would occur. Yet the urge to overtake the genin before they met the same fate as their friend was strong. In the end Xi chose to roughly match the pace the genin themselves had apparently set. At that rate he would overtake the Sound Ninja eventually, but might not reach them until after any battle that came was complete. The likely outcome of any such battle was the death of all the genin and their new chuunin leader. Still Xi was not entirely without hope. If all these genin have hidden talents of the same degree as that Akimichi, then maybe the Sound ninja are in for a serious surprise.  
  
In any event I cannot simply consider just the lives of these genin, Xi reminded himself. Unlike them, or any of the leaf ninja, I can cross the border and pursue into Sound Country, perhaps even to find Orochimaru's base. That information is worth far more than the lives of any few genin, no matter how talented. It was a cold thought, but Xi's perspective was that of an older shinobi. Also, with his accumulated knowledge, he knew Orochimaru represented the key to the storm of events now ravaging the shinobi world. If he could lead Konoha to him, it could pull many shinobi countries back from the brink of war.  
  
Ninja must sometimes make the cruelest choice for the greatest good. It was one of the most frightening of the hundred shinobi sayings. Draci Xi was in many ways the living manifestation of that saying, however, for he was a dragon ninja.  
  
Flashing through the woods like a green, blue, and gray streak Xi was suddenly brought up short. Spider webbing? He looked at the strange silvery threads that hung in front of him. They were far too thick to be the web from a natural spider.  
  
An instantaneous motion, and a shuriken had left Xi's hand and struck the strands. The razor sharp throwing star did not cut it, but stuck into the strands instead.  
  
Xi frowned. A justsu?  
  
The forest had burst into a moment of noise when Xi threw his shuriken. He had retreated to a hiding place moments after the throwing star left his hand, looking for some enemy reaction. There was nothing. The forest had fallen silent.  
  
Silnent himself behind a cloak of leaves Xi counted the slow seconds. When he judged enough time had passed he leapt out, a kunai in each hand, ready to throw.  
  
Nothing.  
  
Xi crossed the distance to the spidery strand.  
  
An extension of chakra? He thought, examining it. Well, that's an unusual jutsu. It must be one of the Sound nins. Yet, it seems he's either far better at hiding than I thought, or no longer here.  
  
Xi dashed along the tree branch, leaping up once again. There must be more signs of battle. As he cleared the treetops he saw a great spiderweb, with strands thicker than rope and the width of a good sized building hanging between nearby trees. Impressive, he thought, but only for the moment before his gaze turned to the left.  
  
There, in a clearing not fifty meters away, lay two more people.  
  
One was a Sound ninja, a monstrous spider thing with too many arms, but still recognizable as one of the barrier jutsu four. He looked dead, but Xi hurled both kunai anyway, piercing the eyes with remarkable accuracy.  
  
A flip, a jump, and Xi came down on the Sound ninja with a kick that caved his chest in. He was taking no chances with cursed seals.  
  
As for the other body...  
  
It's Hyuuga Neji!  
  
Xi had not seen the genin since his fight during the chuunin exam. A talented ninja, but arrogant. Likewise one who doesn't know when to keep his mouth shut about Konoha's secrets. The family's bloodline limit was incredibly impressive though, and Xi had marked Neji as a ninja who would go far if he took the lesson that had been beaten into him to heart.  
  
Now, looking at the hole ridden body with blood pooled beneath it, it seemed that the genin would not achieve his potential. Looking around the battle site, Xi determined that it was a shame. Indeed, the chakra control evident in this battle is incredible. He might have had a potential for it incredibly beyond even my own abilities.  
  
"A pity boy," Xi muttered as he slowly walked over to Neji's prone form. "To die after defeating such a powerful foe."  
  
The dragon ninja reached out to close the Hyuuga's strange pupil-less eyes.  
  
Then he sensed something strange. There's still active chakra here! This boy's alive? Xi passed his hands swiftly over the body, checking his condition as fast as possible.  
  
I don't believe it. Xi decided when he was done. Hyuuga Neji was still barely clinging to life. The apparent wounds astonished Xi, over a dozen kunai-sized punctures on the back, and two tremendous holes clear through his body, and all his vital organs are functioning! He's not dying from anything but shock and blood loss! Xi almost smiled through his dire concern. You are one talented ninja, boy. Now if only I'm not too late to save you.  
  
Xi was not a medical ninja. In fact, he was among the reasons medical ninjas had become a major part of teams only recently. He was a killing ninja, and had no jutsu that could heal or seal wounds. Still, he'd not been a lone operative for eight years without learning some principles of healing. It took mere seconds for him to bind the obvious wounds with bandages. That'll buy some time I guess, Xi determined. But he'll still die if he doesn't get help as soon as possible. Pity that jounin team seems to have run into trouble. There was supposed to be a talented medical ninja among them. Without that option no one who can save him is closer than Tsunade, all the way back in Konoha. Xi sighed; well, he'll have to get back to Konoha then, and soon. Life is never accommodating.  
  
That left Xi with a terrible decision. He had a way that would likely transport Hyuuga Neji back to Konoha in time that there would be a chance to save him. However, to do so would greatly reduce his options in any battle that should occur. If I send him back I expect that he'll survive, the Hyuuga clan has enough pull in Konoha for that, and this is not beyond the care of a talented medical ninja. That much Xi could be certain of. The rest was almost completely unknown. Two more cursed seal bearers lay ahead, and if the genin had managed to kill two of them Orochimaru might have sent reinforcements. That spy servant of his, Kabuto, is certainly sharp enough to have realized something is amiss out here. He knows of my existence as well, dammit. He might lay some surprise beyond the border if he thinks I'm the pursuer. I may need every advantage.  
  
The decision had to be made quickly, Neji's life hung precariously in the balance, and every second might matter. Bah, I hate unknowns, Xi scoffed. At the very least I'll take a debt from Konoha and the Hyuuga clan for saving your life boy. Given the skill you displayed here that's worth something. Past that, well, ninja aren't the types who get to live a certain existence.  
  
Xi's hands moved through another series of complex hand seals, calling forth a great amount of chakra. As he completed them he bit into his left forefinger, and then spread his bloody hand upon the ground. "A debt I call," Xi spoke the words loud and clearly. "Dragon summoning no jutsu!" He shouted.  
  
A blasting storm of air swirled about, blowing a storm of leaves, dust, and twigs past with stinging speed. Xi was forced to close his eyes against the blast of unleashed spiritual energy.  
  
In another instant all was calm again. Xi opened his eyes to behold the magnificent sight he had expected. "All honor to thee, Shen-Lung Sirachi." Xi said, as politely and sincerely as he could while still speaking quickly.  
  
Sirachi nodded in response, a magnanimous gesture from the great creature. He was a serpentine being, but covered with bright scales in many colors, with strong-clawed arms and legs extending from his long body. A great fin adorned his back, and shimmered brilliantly as he danced his passage in the air. His great and whiskered face was something more majestic than that of a simple reptile or human, a face full of wisdom and learning. From head to tail the dragon must have been at least fifteen feet long.  
  
"Why have you summoned me Draci Xi?" Sirachi asked in a voice deep and inhuman, filled with the weight of long ages. "I am bound by the debts I owe, but I have may duties. What must I do?"  
  
Xi resisted the urge to smile. Sirachi was a relatively low rank Shen- lung, a spirit dragon messenger, courtier and bodyguard to more powerful dragons. He had known him for years, and still they were as formal as always beginning any encounter. However, Xi could not afford to take time to greet his dragon friend properly, he rarely could when summoning such a creature, his request was deadly serious. "This boy, Hyuuga Neji, he must be taken to the 5th Hokage, Tsunade, in Konoha, as fast as you can fly, or he will surely perish." Xi added. "Be careful, this forest may be filled with dangerous foes. I cannot accompany you, but must go on to meet them."  
  
Sirachi nodded, wise face taking on a terribly serious expression of concern and wrath. "I will outrun the thunderclap to save this boy." He said, and Xi knew that was not an idle boast. Sirachi was among the fastest of his kindred, and for that reason Xi had summoned him specifically. "Yet is this wise, Draci Xi?" The Shen-lung need not have asked this, it was a testament to the long relationship between the ninja and the dragon that he considered Xi's welfare at all. "With me in your service you cannot summon another dragon. Should you go into battle without our aid if you require it?"  
  
"Don't remind me," Xi replied. "It's a risk I must take, or more boys like that one may fall." Xi pointed to Neji. "We must get going now, I've fallen too far behind already."  
  
Sirachi scooped Neji gently into his clawed hands and was off, a red and green streak leaping across the sky to outpace the clouds and blowing winds.  
  
Xi launched himself back onto his treetop chase, hoping to catch the Sound ninja in time to have an impact. Unfortunately, though he would indeed catch up to the remains of Shikamaru's team and the Sound ninja, the matter was already out of his hands. By the time he reached them Xi could do nothing more than offer his unfriendly news and help cover a retreat back to Konoha. The Dragon Ninja was overshadowed by valiant genin that day, rightly he acknowledged, considering what happened, but what he had done would not be un-remarked. Indeed, it would greatly change many lives in days to come. 


	2. Bargaining in the Morning

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Note: The details of the transition from the previous segment to this one are left deliberately unclear. This is to accommodate whatever happens in the manga as easily as possible, since these events are not intended to conflict with those. It may be assumed that whatever the situation concludes between Shikamaru, Naruto, Kiba, the Sound, and Sasuke Draci Xi did not arrive in time to intervene. It may also be assumed that if any other character died of wounds they did so either before Xi got there, or before Sirachi was able to complete his mission to return Neji, and therefore Xi could not attempt to return them to Konoha. In the unlikely outcome that additional foes (such as Orochimaru himself, or Kabuto) pursued them back to Konoha, obviously, this story would conflict with them. Regardless, the details of what occurs in the manga will certainly take weeks to resolve, and therefore in the interval these assumptions hold.  
I admit, this chapter is basically a group of people talking to each other, but its important insight into Xi's character, and it establishes how people in Konoha feel about the whole situation, and is just a critical setup.  
  
Bargaining in the Morning  
  
The office of the Hokage is a simple room, not particularly large, and sparsely furnished. This is the legacy of the 3rd Hokage, who spent as little as possible time dealing with the officialdom of leading Konoha within such crowded surroundings. The tenure of the 5th Hokage, Tsunade, has not yet resulted in any changes to the environment, though she has managed to accumulate quite a large stack of papers on the desk. This simple room seemed very crowded now, with a number of people within, and the atmosphere was charged. Tsunade sat behind the desk, tired and irritable, her healing talents solely taxed do to the events of the past few days. Behind her stood one of her chuunin assistants, who was doing his best to avoid being drawn into the swirl of emotions in the air. In addition to the fifth Hokage the room contained a number of other extremely talented ninja. The sennin Jiraiya was present, standing to Tsunade's left, but there were also three of Konoha's jounin present, the recently healed and still somewhat unsteady Genma, Gai, whose presence was both unusual and important, and Hyuuga Hiashi, head of the Hyuuga clan. Standing before them all was Draci Xi.  
  
The dragon ninja was a sharp contrast to the others present. Unlike the sennin, who wore their customary outfits, or the jounin, including Hiashi, in the uniforms of Konoha, Xi wore a rather modified jounin outfit himself. It was similar to all ranking ninja outfits, with a tight fitting base covered by a flak jacket, in Xi's case one made in the lightning style, with the scroll pouches horizontal rather than vertical. However, Xi wore an extra kunai holster on his lower right leg, and had free strap nekode on each leg, that he could slip on in and instant. From his flack jacket hung a hunter-nin mask, again in the lightning style, but one broken in half. Xi wore a lightning forehead protector with the bolt and cloud symbol, signifying his nominal allegiance to that village. He stood tight and tense, knowing the gravity in the situation. The normally bombastic Gai, in return, had tried to outmatch Xi's serious posture, and was surprisingly coming close to success. Of everyone in the room, only Genma retained his customary casual pose, and even that occasionally strained as he felt a pain from his still healing wounds.  
  
"Draci Xi," Tsunade began, obviously irritable and not wanting to deal with this. "You asked for a meeting with everyone you see here." She paused. "Well, with the exception of Jiraiya, but it seems there's no keeping his nose out of anything. So what is it you want?"  
  
Xi met Tsunade's stare for a moment, but didn't try and prove any points. I'm not sure I'd win a contest with her anyways. The two senin are the only people in this village who are definitely stronger than I am. He took a shallow breath, and spoke clearly and slowly. "I want Hyuuga Neji."  
  
The four words seemed to drop dead in the room. Tsunade gave no reaction, nor Jiraiya, Genma just raised an eyebrow, but Gai looked like he was about to explode. "You what!" He bellowed in the thunderous voice he was known for.  
  
"Quiet." Tsunade commanded Gai, stopping that explosion for the moment, so that she could gather a better picture of what Xi wanted before the inevitable occurred.  
  
Xi gave her a look of appreciation in return.  
  
"I would appreciate a bit more detail." Tsunade said, keeping the sarcasm only slightly below biting.  
  
"It's really very simple." Xi said plainly. "In return for a cancellation of all my debts to Konoha that have been accumulated since the Sound and Sand invasion, and for the cancellation of the debt to Lightning owed by the deception in the matter of Hyuuga Hiashi, I will take Neji on as my apprentice."  
  
Tsunade and Jiraiya gave Xi an unusual look, Gai gave him a bland stare, and Hiashi looked about ready to kill him.  
  
Hiashi was the first to speak. "What could you possibly teach a member of the Hyuuga clan?" He snapped, plainly considering Xi's skills to be irrelevant. "You've never taught students in your life as I understand it."  
  
Xi's head snapped over to stare at Hiashi. His eyes bored into those same pupil-less eyes that all Hyuuga possessed. Hiashi did not impress him, despite his vaunted position. Yet he did not address his answer to Hiashi, but turned back to the Sennin. It will be their opinion that matters most, Xi knew. "No I have never taught students before, since I have never encountered anyone that was ready to become a dragon ninja before."  
  
"You would train him as a dragon ninja?" Tsunade scoffed. "Why should I allow you to try and turn one of Konoha's brightest rising genin into a killer of your breed?" Her dislike of the dragon ninja was plain.  
  
"Regardless of your feelings on my style," Xi replied, letting a bit of his impatience slip loose. "You will allow me to make Neji into a dragon ninja because you need one, and because he can become one." Xi paused, and prepared to speak at some length. "The dragon ninja are almost gone, I am the last one living in the known shinobi world. Previously I have not felt it necessary to try and pass on the techniques, since I expected I would have plenty of time in front of me. That has changed, Orochimaru has emerged from hiding, and so have the other deadly s-class criminals of the Atasuki. I have been called to fight, and face foes who can slay anyone. I cannot assume I will survive the next few years. So, I have chosen to try and teach the dragon ninja way to another now. Neji has the necessary talent, in fact, far more than that. With my teaching he can easily master the dragon ninja jutsus faster than anyone has ever done. He may even be able to go beyond them. As I understand the Byakugan, and have seen it used, its vision melds perfectly with the precision chakra control used by the dragon ninja. He has already shown his great skills, but he cannot progress that much farther in use of his bloodline ability." Xi leveled a glare at Hiashi. "You have limited him to be weak there forever." He turned to Gai and Genma. "You may strive to teach him the styles and jutsus of the leaf, as you have done so far, but what good does that do? Those jutsus are not of great use to Neji. Only I can offer him a path that will unlock his true potential. He can become the greatest dragon ninja in centuries, and rise to incredible heights of power, but if you do not allow this, he will simply become a talented jounin of Konoha's Hyuuga clan someday, and nothing more."  
  
"Those aren't bad reasons." Jiraiya answered, forestalling any attempts by Gai or Hiashi to speak. "But that's hardly cause enough to let a lightning ninja take away Neji from the Leaf. He's proved that this is where he belongs."  
  
Xi heard this response and realized what it meant. The sennin, who kept sharing glances, had already decided that Neji could become a dragon ninja. They may not like it, and a single glance at Tsunade made that obvious, but they know that they have to honor the debts. I may have already won. "Apologies Jiraiya-sama." Xi responded sincerely. "Perhaps I have not been clear enough. I have no intention of taking Neji from Konoha. I'm don't want to make him a lightning ninja, just a dragon ninja. Village boundaries aren't something I consider important anymore. Neji would remain a member of Leaf village, but I would train him. If you wish, he can even serve with me on missions I perform for Konoha's sake, once I deem him ready." Xi let an almost smile creep over his features. "His life is owed to me in debt, is this so much to ask?"  
  
"You would separate him from his clan, his friends, and his teachers!" Hyuuga Hiashi snapped back. "That is indeed a great deal to ask. Especially since you intend to turn him into a killer."  
  
"All ninja are killers." Xi returned, and he let the statement hang for a moment, daring anyone to refute it. When it went unchallenged, despite clear misgivings on the faces of everyone else, for their various reasons, Xi continued. "And do not say to me that Neji is not a killer. I know his battle record, and we have all seen him fight. He fought Uzemaki Naruto and Hyuuga Hinata with lethal intent during the chuunin exam." He gave Genma a look. "You saw it in him, didn't you?"  
  
Without saying any words, Genma nodded, "Ah."  
  
"So, why not allow me to take Neji, and channel that energy and that intent into a dragon ninja. Otherwise you risk unleashing a terrible scourge that you can ill afford."  
  
Tsunade sighed. "All right, enough." She waved for silence against the storm of comments that almost started. "You've made your case Draci Xi, and I'll admit your arguments were convincing. I imagine you've been working on this little speech since you received word Neji recovered."  
  
Xi smiled, but tried to make it pleasant. The effort was hardly convincing.  
  
"We, unfortunately, do not have such luxuries of time. Your assessment that we need a dragon ninja is aggravating, but, as much I as hate to admit it, possibly accurate."  
  
Jiraiya gasped. "I didn't expect you to say that Tsunade!"  
  
She looked up at him. "This Hokage job makes you sometimes make decisions you'd rather not make. Frankly, this whole problem stems from everyone letting the dragon ninja run around and accumulate his 'debts' while nobody was in charge. I can't have Konoha beholden to him forever." She turned back to Xi. "Since you have made clear that Hyuuga Neji will remain a member of the Hidden Village of the Leaf, I will tentatively agree." Xi managed to keep a glow of success from his face. "However!" Tsunade continued. "I will hear the objections of those others here first, and I will insist that if you cannot show that Hyuuga Neji has progressed on the path of a dragon ninja in two months, you will say that you failed and return him to us, as we will owe you nothing."  
  
Witch! Xi thought. You think to turn the tables on me? Set your damn deadline then, I'll make sure Neji beats it; I can guess well enough how to motivate him. "As you wish, Hokage-sama."  
  
"Fine." Tsunade replied. "Now, I said I would hear objections. First, Jiraiya?"  
  
The other sennin gave Xi a very long look, a look Xi didn't like. Unlike Tsunade, who hid her age, Jiraiya revealed his, and despite his excellent health, he was obviously older than Xi. It was not something Xi liked looking at, a ninja with more age or experience than he had. He could come up with a real reason I should not do this, Xi saw as he looked into that gaze. Something that I have failed to consider. No, I have made my decision, and this is something that must be done. If not Hyuuga Neji, then I believe that dragon ninja shall die. Xi knew he could not allow that, would not allow that. Jiraiya could say whatever he wished, but he would not allow himself to be swayed.  
  
"Humph." The Sennin grumbled. "I don't like your methods dragon ninja, but maybe that's what this Neji needs, someone who'll show him other things to worry about than people's levels. But we'll keep a close watch."  
  
Xi was surprised, pleasantly surprised, he had feared Jiraiya's objections above all others. Clearly everyone else, with the possible exception of Tsunade, was also surprised. For Xi however, Jiraiya's support was tremendously important. Reasoning was never my strong suit, but maybe I really did come to the right conclusion this time. He did not smile, but gave a minute nod in thanks to the sennin for his confidence.  
  
"Well, then." Tsunade continued. "Genma?"  
  
"We're breaking a lot of rules lately." Genma said with his tired and laid back expression. "Guess one more won't matter, and yeah, Neji's the type for this."  
  
The unenthusiastic approach surprised no one, Genma was hardly the most vocal of ninja, but his words were critically supportive, since he was the one who had seen Neji fight Naruto up close, and how the flow of that battle went. Tsunade simply continued on, finally allowing Gai to speak.  
  
Neji's sensei had been struggling mightily to contain his words, and now that he was able to speak, Gai let them out in a loud, long, and angry stream. "I will not allow one of my students to be bought!" He began. "I am Neji's sensei, and it is my responsibility to make him into an excellent ninja, I will not hand him over to a ninja who practices a cruel style that is one dimensional! Nor will I let him go to someone who has never instructed others before! It's unacceptable! I doubt your motives, your sincerity, your competence, and I will not allow this theft of my pupil!"  
  
Xi weathered the storm quietly, having expected Gai to be angry. While the jounin was right in that he had never taught students, and therefore could not really understand what Gai felt was being taken from him, Xi believed that of all those who might remonstrate him this man had the most justification. Apologies, he told him silently, but there is no choice. We cannot all have what we wish here. "I do not want to steal your pupil." Xi replied, letting a bit of anger creep in there. "I will abide by my word. Yes, I will take him from your tutelage, but your time for that is over, Gai-sensei. You are a taijutsu master, and konoha needs your presence for defense. You and I both know that you have not devoted sufficient time to your students recently, none of the jounin of this village have. I am offering to step in and free you from that responsibility. I admit my motives are my own, but they are to Konoha's benefit. By giving Neji to my care you will be free to concentrate on the student who most requires your attention, Rock Lee. Neji has been almost independent of your teaching for some time now, since you cannot instruct him in the use of the Byakugan." Xi paused. "As to your accusation that I cannot teach, well, the Hokage has set me a deadline. The least you can do is allow me the chance to teach the boy."  
  
Gai grumbled, his face twisted angrily, and he looked ready to do something dangerous. Xi tensed, as did everyone else in the room.  
  
Standing next to the volatile Jounin, Genma reached over and put is arm in front of Gai, saying nothing. That seemed to be enough for Gai to regain some semblance of composure. "Fine." He snapped, the word laced with a viciousness that was not common from the otherwise kind and open jounin. "But I swear that if you let Neji become a monster I will kill you."  
  
"If I let Neji become a monster it will be the least I deserve." Xi replied, utterly serious. "Because he would kill us all."  
  
That left only one more, and the most difficult of them all, the Hyuuga head master, Hiashi. The older man wore a jounin uniform, a testament to Konoha's shortage of people that it must call him out to serve on mission. He had grown progressively angrier as discussion went on, but had said little. Now, as Tsunade signaled he could speak, Xi knew the storm had gathered behind those pupil-less eyes. "You cannot have Neji." Hiashi said flatly, no tone or inflection was allowed to creep into that voice, even anger was held back completely, a most impressive display of the man's control. "He is Hyuuga, and his purpose is Hyuuga. No ninja from beyond Konoha will be allowed to take him as an apprentice. It is not done, and it will not be done. You are simply acting to steal Hyuuga's secrets. That is all. This will not occur; the Hyuuga clan does not permit it."  
  
Draci Xi accounted himself a reasonable ninja, he had to be, or his hands would be soaked in nothing but blood. Still, he knew when to reason, and when not to, and he had exhausted his patience. He let the control slip out of his voice, and no longer suppressed his anger. I will not try to reason with you, instead, I will slay this foolishness now. The more humane side of Xi faded away, and Hyuuga Hiashi was left facing the dragon ninja. "You have no choice, Hyuuga." Xi bit off the words, the anger boiling through them violently. He stared into those pupil-less eyes, and Hiashi blanched. "I am taking Neji. The debt I am owed demands it. I have bargained with Konoha at all because I understand these are trying times, and because I am not of Konoha, but a Lightning ninja. I will not bargain with you!" He shouted. "The Hyuuga clan and Neji himself owe me a life, and I have chosen this way to take it. I have even allowed this to recompense for the deception given upon Lightning that Neji revealed." Xi's eyes shifted to their coldest, and to everyone else in the room their seemed the shadow of slit eyed creature behind them. "I have chosen this, but I could chose your life as the payment for these debts! Would you rather I kill you? It is not less than I am owed."  
  
"You have no right to demand anything of Hyuuga." Hiashi managed in response, for he was a strong man, and not easily cowed.  
  
"I have every right!" Xi practically screamed the words. "I am a dragon ninja, debt is my word, my bond, my jutsu, and my life! I pay what I owe, and am given what I am owed! Defy me, and you will become my enemy." The dragon ninja's voice dropped down low now. "You cannot have me as your enemy. Konoha cannot deal with me right now. You need my aid, and you will need Neji as a dragon ninja. You have failed him all your life Hiashi, and he has become a hollow child, blaming fate and confused. Uzemaki Naruto has given him an opportunity, and I will force him through that door. He will learn from me, and I will channel him forward. If you try anything else, he will slam into a wall soon enough because of how you have bound him. You fear I will usurp him and make a monster. You know nothing!" Xi shouted again, voice continuing to rise. "You have bound his talent out of Hyuuga, and hamstrung him. No one else in Konoha can offer him a path to move forward on, not you, not Gai, and not anyone else. He is already stopped. I have saved his life! I will take him forward! And you will get out of my way or be destroyed!"  
  
Hiashi had gone through several stages of anger, fear, and wrath, and now he was ready to strike out. It would have been foolish to an unbelievable extent, he was neither ready nor composed enough to fight well, and Xi would kill him without remorse.  
  
Tsunade stopped it. "Enough!" She bellowed, focusing all her terrible strength into her voice. "You will both stop this." Gai and Genma moved to Hiashi's side, and their calmer presence seemed to hold his anger back. Xi straightened up again, adopting a less threatening posture. "You have made your point Draci Xi, dragon ninja of Cloud. You may train Hyuuga Neji, if he agrees to it. Gai will explain the circumstances to him." That rankled Xi, and he knew Gai would paint him harshly, but he also knew the Jounin was honest, and was confident that Neji would agree, he had no choice but to assume that. Tsunade continued, voicing her displeasure. "You have what you wanted, and Konoha's debts will be absolved. I agree to this, but you have not impressed me, dragon ninja. Do not expect a warm welcome in the future."  
  
"My welcome has never been warm, Hokage-sama. I do not expect you to ever like me, but perhaps in time you will understand why I am necessary." Xi bowed. He turned to Gai. "Assuming Neji agrees, I will meet him on your standard training field this afternoon."  
  
Gai said nothing, but nodded.  
  
A small victory this, the complex first step in what is to come, Xi thought. He was not entirely confident. I have invested much in this decision, if I am wrong, then all the work I have done here may be wasted. Indeed, there was a reason Xi had never taught anyone before, beyond those that he had given. He did not believe he would be good at it. I'm no instructor for weak-minded genins, trying to become a dragon ninja would kill them. You're not like that Hyuuga Neji, I am sure of that much, and you have the strength to endure what I must inflict upon you. The current times were dark ones, and Xi knew he would need to make Neji into a dragon ninja quickly. The Atatsuki are waiting, Xi thought with no small amount of fear and unfortunate memories. The young ninja of this generation must be made ready to face them, and from Konoha only Neji can walk the path I offer. Draci Xi set about readying himself to change the boy named Hyuuga Neji. 


	3. Midday Words, Choices

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: This chapter is again, mostly talk. Again, this is important stuff though. Here are probably the most writing time any series characters aside from Neji will get, Tenten and Gai, who I had to work with more than I originally intended. This is the first chapter seen through Neji's eyes.  
  
Midday Words, Choices  
  
The hospital rooms of Konoha are bland and boxlike, designed for security and not pleasantry. Most of the ninja injured seriously enough to end up in one were not conscious anyway, so décor was not a consideration. It made it hard on those who spent long recovery periods here though, for they had little to do, and even less to distract them in the band surroundings.  
  
For Hyuuga Neji, five days in the hospital, it was excruciatingly boring. He had awoken after sleeping for two days, his body recovering from Tsunade's healing. The medics had told him little, and he did not know anything beyond the deadly fight and waking up here. Neji didn't like that. He was supposed to be dead, he had seen into his wounds, and had felt the blood leaking out of him as he lay beside the Sound he had slain. How did I survive? Neji wondered, and asked the question repeatedly, but no one would answer. Oh, it was said that Tsunade had healed him, but Neji was not satisfied. I got back to Konoha somehow, and I want to know how that happened.  
  
The last three days in bed had been the worst. His strength had returned quickly, as a blood transfusion had dealt with the only truly serious problem to his body, and Tsunade's skills had rebuilt the damaged muscles. He felt almost as fit as ever by now, and wanted to get out the hospital. He needed to know what was going on.  
  
Neji had received some news, since he had not been without visitors. Indeed, Tenten had spent a tremendous amount of time with him, enough that Neji had actually gotten irritated by her near constant presence. She'd brought him little news though, aside from the usual happenings around Konoha. It had been aggravating that she could tell him nothing about his mission, especially when Tenten said she had asked Gai-sensei. That his sensei did not come by also aggravated him, though the nurses said he had been very attentive while Neji was asleep. There was something going on, it was easy enough to tell. Everyone is hiding something from me, some strange secret. That had been obvious when Naruto and Shikamaru had come to see him. The young Chuunin had been taciturn, not that Neji really knew him anyway. He had been grateful Neji had survived, and had congratulated him on a mission well done, but that was all. Still, despite the standard no motivation attitude, it had been easy to see that he had been holding something back.  
  
Naruto had been more vocal, and Neji had been surprised to actually appreciate the crazy ninja's presence. Not that he considered Naruto a friend, and neither did Naruto really, despite his best attempts to seem otherwise. Their fight had been too loaded during the Chuunin exam. It will be a long time before I forget what was said there, Neji realized during that visit. A long time for him too. Still, he had been slightly surprised to be so glad to know his comrades were alive, especially when Naruto sobbingly told him what had happened to Chouji.  
  
It seemed more likely that Shikamaru would tell it, but Neji saw the tears at the corners of the Chuunin's eyes when Naruto spoke. Ah, he thought. So he does care. It was sobering to hear of Chouji's death, even though Neji had not known the other genin hardly at all, and still thought him to be something of a fat weakling. Perhaps I was wrong about that, though, if he beat an opponent like mine. Regardless, it was sobering to learn that a genin he knew had died. Neji didn't know many of the other members of his class well, several had died in the invasion he'd been told, but that had barely brushed him. To have a teammate, even such a brief one, die, that was far more hard hitting. He also couldn't help but wonder, our foes were supposed to be far beyond us. Was it Chouji's fate to die there? Was it mine? That was a far more disturbing question.  
  
When asked Shikamaru had refused to answer, and had reminded Naruto of the same. "What's the problem?" Neji had demanded. "How did I get back here? There's an answer, so what is it?"  
  
"Ah, don't worry." Shikamaru told him offhandedly. "Someone'll tell you soon enough. Why's it matter anyway?"  
  
Neji was sure even Shikamaru realized the foolishness of his last question, but didn't press the matter. No one was talking to him freely except Tenten, and she was out of the loop. He resolved that as soon as the nurses released him he would find Gai-sensei and make sure he got the answer. That only made the waiting harder to take.  
  
Tenten stayed with Neji most of that morning, but they had run out of things to say to each other. Neji was focused on finding out what had happened on his last mission, and Tenten seemed, distracted. It was long past the point where she could fool Neji, but he waited, hoping she would tell him what was on her mind. She was perhaps the only person he would treat that way who was his age, but then she was perhaps his only real friend. In the end though, when at noon Tenten was about to leave without saying anything, Neji spoke up. "What's wrong? Tell me."  
  
"I shouldn't Neji, I don't know anything." She replied quietly, but with sadness.  
  
"I'm sick of everyone trying to talk around me Tenten, don't you start with that too." Neji replied angrily.  
  
"Well, alright." She said, still sad. "I've been assigned to a mission."  
  
"A mission?" That was puzzling for a second, and Neji asked another question without bothering to puzzle out the implications. "Lee and I are still injured, and isn't Gai-sensei posted here for defense? How do we have a mission?"  
  
Tenten put her head in her hands, and sobbed without replying.  
  
"Tenten," Neji admonished harshly. "You're trying to hide your face so I can't see that you're recalling something terrible. Don't."  
  
"Neji," She began slowly, but then the words just flowed out on their own. "We don't have a mission, I do. I've been assigned with three other genin to a chuunin's team. They're old comrades from our class, and we're going to complete a bunch of C rank missions, I guess there aren't enough people. Neji, you're injured, and Lee's still not been healed. Gai-sensei's busy, I think they're going to break up our team. No, I know they are, Gai- sensei's coming at noon to speak with you, and I'm sure that's what its about. I bet you'll be teamed with Shikamaru and Naruto again. Why? Why do they have to break us up?" Tenten started sobbing again.  
  
Neji just looked at her blankly. Break up the team? He reaction began with numbness. We haven't really been a team since Lee got hurt, he realized. Yes, he had trained with Tenten, trained a lot really, while preparing for the exam, but it had just been the two of them, Gai-sensei had been mostly absent. He probably cheered Naruto during the chuunin exam, Neji thought. Tenten's the only one who stuck by me. Is that what upsets her? Once he thought that it was obvious. Yes, that was what upset her. That realization made him even number. The team was one thing. Neji had never considered it permanent, just a point fate had pushed him to, something he would leave behind when he became a chuunin. Lee and he had never gotten along anyway, and Gai-sensei was hardly his favorite teacher either. But Tenten? That was saddening. She's the only one who cheered me when I fought Naruto, I'm sure of that now. Have I angered everyone else so much? Do they all hate me? No, Neji realized, they don't hate me. Everyone thinks I'm a fool. Soberly he continued the thought. They were right too, Naruto proved them right. I have to remember that.  
  
The realization made Neji feel a little better, as he understood better what he'd been discovering since his defeat at the chuunin exam. It left him, however, with Tenten still sobbing. He knew he had to do something, but he wasn't good at this situation. He wasn't even sure how he felt. I knew fate would drive us apart eventually; she and I were made for different paths. Did she never think that? Or was she like Lee, did she think hard work could change that? Neji couldn't answer those questions, but he knew he had to say something. He responded as his usually blunt and frank self. "Stop it." He told he sternly.  
  
Tenten's head jerked up. Neji continued. "It's good that you have a mission, you'll do well." He believed that certainly, he knew Tenten was not so feeble as many had thought she was. She's a component ninja. "I'm sorry the team is being broken up." Neji was surprised to find he believed that too, but he did. "It would have happened eventually though." He said with brutal frankness. "If Lee or I had become a chuunin, or you had, that would have broken up the team. You know that. You know it would have happened."  
  
Tenten wiped away some tears and nodded, and she rapidly returned to herself. "I hoped I would still be on your team."  
  
Neji nodded at this, his own eyes growing unusually sad. "We don't always get what we hoped for." He said, but felt he should add more than that. "Perhaps we will work together in the future though, in a squad of chuunin, or elsewhere."  
  
That did it, Neji realized as Tenten smile at him. That was what I was supposed to say. He made sure to remember this situation, for he rarely said the right thing to people.  
  
"I hope that happens." Tenten said, smiling again. "I've got to go now, Neji. Gai-sensei's coming, and I have to report."  
  
Neji said nothing more, but just nodded to her.  
  
She left quickly, saying nothing more, and leaving Neji to stare at the walls again.  
Beyond the sadness Tenten had brought him with her revelation, there was something else disturbing about what she had said. She expected him to join Shikamaru and Naruto, but they had visited him and said nothing about anything like that. Neji would not believe that if he and Naruto were to be on the same team the other ninja could have avoided speaking about it. No, there was something else going on. It has to be tied to how I survived. I'm supposed to be dead, so what are they doing with me? More than anything right now, Neji wanted those answers; he needed to know what his place was.  
Only a few moments after Tenten had left, Gai entered. Neji jolted upright as he did so, and then scowled. Gai wore an unusually dour expression, hardly what Neji expected from a man coming to greet a recovering student. Something strange has happened, Neji was certain, what is it? Will Gai-sensei tell me?  
  
Gai sat down in the chair Tenten had occupied, though I was perhaps too small for him. He sat with his arms crossed, hands fidgeting. He seemed unsure of what to say. Neji did not say anything, he wanted Gai to say something first.  
  
"Neji," Gai began finally. "I'm sure you have been wondering what happened to you."  
  
Neji nodded. "You are all keeping some strange secret, even Naruto knew but did not tell me." Neji said that as if making Naruto keep a secret somehow made it far more terrible than otherwise.  
  
Gai did not look particularly happy with the response, but it seemed he had expected it. Neji had long learned there were moments when his sensei was utterly transparent, and others when he was every bit a true ninja, and impossible to read. This moment seemed to be one of the latter. "Neji," Gai continued. "We chose to keep things from you because certain things had to be decided. Those things were decided this morning. The Hokage has sent me to tell you everything."  
  
Neji said nothing.  
  
Looking perplexed, Gai fumbled for somewhere to start. "Ah, what do you remember before waking up here?" He asked, unsure.  
  
It was a reasonable question, Gai had not been in to see him, and had apparently not asked Tenten or his teammates what he remembered. "I remember that I should have died." Neji answered coldly. "I had beaten Kidomaru, he died. I was lying there, and I could see my wounds, and feel the blood leak out. I was going to die, and I couldn't do anything about it. Then I woke up here. That's all."  
  
"Ah," Gai managed, rather shocked by how frankly Neji said it. "Well, I suppose I should tell you what happened afterwards. You've already had Naruto tell you how they fared I gather. I'll say what happened to you. I've been told you've been asking everyone how you survived."  
  
"I have." Neji said. "So what happened? I don't see how I ended up back here, even if someone had dragged me I shouldn't have made it."  
  
"Yes, well..." Gai gathered his strength, knowing that this would be difficult to explain. "There was another ninja in the woods that day. He is the one who saved you."  
  
Another ninja? Some ANBU on patrol? Neji wondered, but nodded for Gai to continue.  
  
"This ninja, he is not an ordinary ninja." Gai rushed forward. "His name is Draci Xi, a ninja from the Lightning, and a dragon ninja. He summoned a dragon that brought you back to Konoha. Here Hokage-sama healed your wounds. That is how you made it back."  
  
The words sank in slowly, and Gai was silent for a time, allowing Neji to sort them. He did not know what a dragon ninja was, presumably someone who could summon a dragon as Gai-sensei said he had. The name was unfamiliar as well, but Neji knew nothing about the ninja of other villages, so that was not surprising. He knew already that the Hokage had healed him, but the rest made little sense. "Why would a ninja from lightning save me? Don't they want the secrets of the Byakugan? If he found me dying he could have tried to take them from my body."  
  
Having revealed what he had to reveal, Gai appeared more comfortable. "Draci Xi is unusual, he has been working with Konoha against the Sound, and he collects debts. He wanted Konoha to owe him for saving you, that is why he did it."  
  
"So that is it then?" Neji asked. "I was saved by this lightning, and now Konoha owes him something?" Neji didn't like the idea of being responsible for some debt the whole village owed. "I'll help to pay it back if I can."  
  
Gai reacted oddly to that remark. He almost recoiled for an instant, but then regained his composure immediately. This confused Neji more, his sensei was holding something back. "Odd," Gai remarked. "That you should say that."  
  
"What is it?" Neji demanded, his patience at its limit. There was something about this dragon ninja that Gai-sensei had yet to say.  
  
"The reason we waited to tell you what had happened till today is because of that debt Xi collected." Gai was now more serious than Neji had ever seen him, even in battle. "Xi decided to call in that debt, and several others Konoha owes him. It was decided this morning."  
  
"Why does this affect me, unless I am to serve on some team to fulfill this mission?" Neji continued. "If this why Tenten was assigned to another team."  
  
"No, Tenten was given a mission because Konoha has need of every ninja now." Gai replied. "This affects you because of what Xi requested in return for his debts." Gai fell silent, not wanting to continue.  
  
Neji prompted him mercilessly. "What did he request?" He demanded harshly.  
  
The words snapped out of Gai instantly. "That you be his apprentice."  
  
"What?" Neji was astonished. A lightning ninja I have never heard of has asked me to be his apprentice? That can't be, such things never happen. I'm a member of the Hyuuga branch family! What is this? But Gai's voice would silence him.  
  
"Draci Xi has requested that you be his apprentice, you have apparently impressed him, and he has said that he will train you to be a dragon ninja." Gai continued in an even more somber tone. "Neji, the Hokage has agreed to Xi's request."  
  
Neji blinked. "They've what?" He managed, not believing what he had just heard.  
  
"The decision was made this morning, Konoha cannot reasonably refuse the dragon ninja's demands. If you agree, you become his apprentice, if not; Konoha will be forced to pay the debt some other way. That's the way things are right now." Gai looked disheartened.  
  
"I'm just supposed to accept this, that I'll be trained by someone I know nothing about, someone not even from the Leaf?" To Neji it seemed like an ill-conceived joke of some kind.  
  
"No!" Gai managed with quite a bit more enthusiasm than he had the whole conversation. "You can choose however you chose. No one will force you to do this."  
  
He knew Gai's words were the truth, but also that what he had said earlier was true, that he would do his part to bear this debt, since otherwise he should be dead. "How am I supposed to chose?" He asked. "I know nothing about this man, and about this decision you have made."  
  
"I am charged to tell you." Gai replied, once again deadly serious. "My last act as your sensei, however you chose. If you chose to abide by the decision, well then you can meet with Xi this afternoon. If not, Konoha will surely assign you to a team, since a ninja who has demonstrated your abilities cannot be spared."  
  
So, Tenten was correct, one-way or another we are broken up. It was surprisingly saddening to have that confirmed. Neji thought about it a moment more, but then, we were broken apart five days ago, when this Xi saved me from death and claimed my life. If he had not, I would be dead, and the team would be ended regardless.  
  
"So, Gai-sensei, explain this." Neji said evenly. "Who is this Xi, why does he want to train me, what is a dragon ninja? I will need to know."  
  
"I knew that is what you would say." Gai replied. "Though I had hoped you would reject the idea. Have I been such a bad teacher to you, Hyuuga Neji?" The words were coarse, but there was powerful emotion behind them.  
  
Not long ago Neji might have said that Gai had indeed been a bad teacher, as he had been forced to teach himself most of his skill with the Byakugan. Now though, now he knew that it had not been about techniques, but that Gai had been trying to teach him how to be a ninja. I never really listened to him, but that is as much my fault as his. So his answer was different. "No, but the Neji you taught would have died fighting a Sound ninja. Perhaps this Xi can teach me otherwise?"  
  
"Perhaps he can." Gai did not sound very confident of that. "Very well, I will tell you, so listen carefully."  
  
The Jounin began to recite the history of Draci Xi and the Dragon Ninja. "I do not know that much about Draci Xi's early life. He was a Lightning ninja, and apparently rather talented. He rose to the rank of Chuunin in his second exam, at thirteen, joined an ANBU squad two years later, and served in a number of Lightning conflicts. He was apparently a skilled chakra manipulator, but knew extraordinarily few jutsu. Having been an ANBU for only a year, he was picked out as an apprentice by the then last dragon ninja, a Lightning ninja named Draci Naravki." Neji caught that both Dragon ninja apparently shared the same family named, but he allowed Gai to continue without saying anything. "Xi was trained as a dragon ninja for a year and a half, after which he had only intermittent contact with his master and rejoined the ANBU. He served in the ANBU for some time, and was made a Jounin at some point during that period. However, he did not teach students as most Jounin do, but instead he was taken from the ANBU and made a Hunter-nin, taking the place his master had held. He was ideally suited to being a Hunter-nin, being a dragon ninja.  
  
I do not know how much time Xi spent as an ANBU, or how much time he spent as a Hunter-nin, or really what he did during those periods, though I know he did not serve against Konoha in the war, but tracked missing-nin from both sides at that time. He served as both as a dragon ninja for eleven years, until eight years ago. This was about a year after the treaty, and the attempt to kidnap Hinata. You know of the decision made after that. Apparently, the Lightning had not agreed amongst themselves about what had happened, and there was a conflict. One group swiftly emerged victorious, but a large number of ninja were declared missing. One of those, an extremely powerful ninja, is known to have killed Draci Naravki. The Hunter-nins, they went after this woman, but they failed. Only Draci Xi survived, but he did not kill her, only managed to recover the dragon ninja artifacts she had stolen.  
  
Xi quit the Hunter-nins after that, and went out alone. Lightning sanctioned him as their agent, and he reported as a spy, but he undertook his own actions. No one knew what he was doing."  
  
Neji absorbed all this information as Gai spoke it, this complicated history of the other ninja, Draci Xi. He does not seem so special, Neji thought.  
  
Gai continued. "No one knew where Xi really was for those eight years, though there are reports. However, we know now that he served as a spy in Konoha for some time."  
  
If he was a spy, then why is he not dead? No one could get away with spying on Konoha. Neji didn't understand it.  
  
"Xi revealed himself during the Chuunin exam." Gai said. It begins to make sense, Neji thought. "I do not know how strong he was among the Lightning, Neji, but when he revealed himself at the exam, and fought the Sound and Sand ninja, he was extremely strong. He is stronger than me or Kakashi, certainly, perhaps almost at the Sennin level, though Jiraiya-sama, and Hokage-sama are stronger than he is. Xi fought for us that day, you did not see him because you were in the Hospital, but he aided myself, Kakashi, and other Jounin at the stadium, and then went out into Konoha, where he fought the great snakes summoned by the Sand and Orochimaru, holding them back until Jiraiya-sama arrived to slay them. We have counted that he killed over twenty-five ninja that day."  
  
Twenty-five? Neji did not believe that, could not believe that. No ninja could fight so many fights and win, even against weaker opponents. Could they? He interrupted Gai. "How?"  
  
"Because he is a dragon ninja," His sensei answered. "But wait a minute for that. After the Chuunin exam, Xi has continued to aid Konoha. He fought Sound Ninja all along the border with their country, and sometimes into theirs, since the Lightning have given him that right. He killed many of them. He also tracked ninja from other countries that were coming to spy in the Leaf, and has helped us drive many of them out, or driven them off himself. Then he saved your life five days ago, and went on to try to aid your teammates, but he was too late."  
  
It did not seem all that extraordinary to Neji, not that much more than what he had heard Gai say of the exploits of other Jounin such as his rival Kakashi, and paled in comparison to what was said of the Sennin. But Gai clearly did not like this Xi, and yet he had given him a lengthy list of accomplishments, and said he killed twenty-five ninja in one day, as well as fought great snakes. That alone was astounding. Perhaps there is something to this man, he decided. "So why does this Xi want to train me?" Neji asked, for Gai's long explanation had provided no hints to that.  
  
"He wants to make you a dragon ninja." Gai answered. "He believes you have the skills required, and the opportunity was there. Perhaps he is actually doing it because it believes it will be good for you. He told all of us that, and also that you had great potential, but he has never trained students before, so I do not trust such motives."  
  
"Do you not trust him?" Neji asked, knowing that Gai, for all his seeming foolishness and ridiculous actions, was a surprisingly shrewd judge of character. Which may be why he never really liked me, Neji recalled, since I was hardly a good person.  
  
"No, I do not not 'trust' him as you say. I do not like him." Gai scowled. "His is a dragon ninja, and it is hard to see past that. You see, Neji, the dragon ninja are an old style, the peak of their power was before the Great Ninja Wars. Now Xi is the only one left. Dragon Ninja are not likeable, for their purpose is to kill." He let that stand in the air for a moment. "All of Xi's jutsus are designed to kill enemies, and they are very, very, good at this. That is how he killed twenty-five ninja in one day, each of them took only a single technique. I do not think Xi is an evil man, but he is harsh and violent. He measures his life by his debts; all the dragon ninja do so. Still, he defended Konoha when he could have fought for Orochimaru, and has risked himself for us several times. Perhaps when you meet him you can decide."  
  
"All their jutsu kill?" Neji repeated.  
  
"Yes, that is how they were created." Gai did not try to justify it. "Perhaps Xi can explain why to you, I do not understand him."  
  
Neji considered all that Gai had told him for long minutes. He believed that he should repay this debt that he had incurred, and that Konoha should not suffer, since it was his life that had been saved. If Gai could no longer teach him, than perhaps having another Sensei, even a Lightning nin, made sense. Neji realized that though he was learning a different way of life, he was not ready to walk alone yet. I do not wish to serve with Naruto and Shikamaru, I cannot do that yet, and I'm not ready to be his teammate. Yet, I wonder what this Xi can teach me. How to kill? Do I want to learn that? I already can kill with my hands. What is he offering to teach me, to be some kind of assassin? It was a difficult decision, and Neji's mind attacked it from many different angles. He was adept at seeing a solution others could not, but in this case he had only one choice, yes or no. In the end, he could not decide based on what Gai had told him. He was not yet ready to make the irrevocable choice. "I will meet him before I decide." Neji told his sensei.  
  
Gai's eyes were downcast but he said nothing more than, "He is waiting at our training site, I will not go with you." 


	4. Dragon Ninja Before Sunset

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Ah, some action, for those who have been waiting I imagine, and also the fateful meeting between Draci Xi and Hyuuga Neji. The true story really begins here with the two of them.  
  
Dragon Ninja Before Sunset  
  
Hyuuga Neji would find Draci Xi sitting quietly in the middle of the training field his team had always used. The scene was surprisingly peaceful compared to what Neji had expected from a ninja Gai had described as a killer. Xi was just sitting there, eyes focused far off into the distance. He did not appear to see Neji's stealthy approach.  
  
He had chosen to come in from the surrounding trees, and do his very best to not be detected. This was partly because Neji knew he needed the practice, just coming out here had shown that he wasn't at full strength yet. Give me a day though, he decided. The new Hokage is an incredible healer, she has some blessed talent. However, his condition was good enough, and he pushed it to the back of his mind. So far, Draci Xi had not impressed him. Does he know I'm here? What kind of killer is this supposed near-sennin if he can't even notice me?  
  
Xi's appearance was rather unusual, Neji admitted that much. His difference in coloration, with a blue-green flak jacket as opposed to the slightly different color used in Konoha, and the base uniform beneath that was blue as well, not green. The dragon ninja wore no bandages on his body, unlike most high-ranking ninja. Instead he carried additional weapons, a secondary kunai holster, and a nekode on each thigh. Neji was of course familiar with the climbing tools, but they looked to be worn on Xi as quick- draw weapons. An odd choice, they would have a shorter reach and be less useful than kunai, why fight with them? The most interesting piece of Xi's outfit was the hunter-nin mask fastened to his flak jacket. It was shorn in two vertically, so that if worn it would likely just fall off, and could never cover the face. Why would a ninja keep such a thing? Neji wondered. A foolish sentimentality.  
  
As he was considering how to make his appearance, Xi looked up. He stared directly at the place where Neji hung, and bored into his eyes. Looking back, Neji almost screamed. The eyes had turned red, with a double- layered iris. Within that frightful framework the pupil was a slit-like, an otherworldly thing that never belonged in a human face.  
  
Those eyes bore into Neji, and he felt fear. It came from somewhere he could not recognize, overwhelming and terrible, and fear that had a source in those terrifying eyes, piercing the mind. From those eyes a human was nothing, a life comparable to an ant, something to not even consider tossing aside. His thoughts were sucked down like a whirlpool, striking nothing, spiraling off each other, confusion spreading everywhere. The body lost focus under that assault, and his muscles began to spasm. His organs started to behave oddly, twisting and jolting under the influence of that fear, a fear that his mind could not even comprehend, much less combat. It struck everywhere, a sensation Neji had never experienced. What is happening? His brain managed to shriek. Parts of him where beyond terror, parts of him completely unaffected, and something from beyond where he knew men should see was staring at him.  
  
It was unclear whether or not he was even aware of Xi anymore, but Neji knew when his blood began to lose control. Aware of the chakra circulatory system within himself innately after so much use of the Byakugan, he could feel his blood begin to flow the wrong way, and his heart to lose its rhythm. Past that, he could see the charkra within him, the flow was distorted, as parts of him tried to function normally, and others sought to move the fear-laced chakra his brain was outputting away, anywhere away. My body is afraid of itself! Neji realized with another spasm of terror. For a moment he almost drowned beneath that backwards flow, but then he realized something, a think that he clung to instantly. Not all of me is afraid! Parts of me cannot feel this fear. With terror overwhelming his mind it took Neji a long period to process that information, at which point he felt as if he were slowly dying once again. I have already felt this sensation, it will not overwhelm me. Then, he had it.  
  
As a user of the Byakugan the flow of his own chakra circulatory system was constantly in his minds eye. Knowing that, he now manipulated the flow in his own body, trapping the panicked chakra where it stood, and channeling the portions of him that were not terrified everywhere else. Slowly, his body became cleansed, and with that the fear dissipated.  
  
From a blinded obscurity of fear, Neji felt his senses return, and the world returned to focus once again. He found that he had not moved, though it felt he had run for miles, and was still standing on the branch where he had been watching Draci Xi. Worried, he forced himself to look back to where the dragon ninja had been sitting.  
  
There was no one there.  
  
"Come down already, Hyuuga Neji." The voice spoke in matter-of-fact tones, an unfriendly voice, but a mundane one.  
  
Draci Xi stood directly below Neji's hiding place. Neji looked down and saw that he had normal eyes once again, simple and plain brown eyes. He breathed a sigh of relief in spite of himself. I have the Byakugan, I have looked into the Sharingan, but what eyes where those? Where did that terror come from?  
  
Neji dropped to the ground in front of Xi.  
  
The two were quite the contrast. Xi was slightly below average height, whereas Neji was tall for his age. The dragon ninja's black hair was cut short, but straight, not in a bowl like Gai's, while Neji's long brown hair extended down his back where it was tied together. Neji had the pale skin and pupil-less eyes of the Hyuuga, while Xi had darker skin and brown eyes, he appeared positively average to the exotic Hyuuga. Only a slight scar down his forehead marked his face. Neji could now see that the scar matched the break in his Hunter-nin mask, and appeared to have been burned there.  
  
"You shouldn't have tried to sneak up on me Hyuuga Neji." Xi said. "It's unwise to try that on an assassin and a spy, especially when he knows you're coming.  
  
"So you saw me, any Jounin could have." Neji snapped back. "I was trying to see if you're worth training under."  
  
"Strong words from a man who just felt the Dragon's Eye." Xi remarked. Neji blanched, not knowing how long he had stood frozen in terror. "Though you do not know it, they are actually warranted. You mastered the defense against that technique immediately. It is essential that a dragon ninja do so, and I know of no one who has ever succeeded so quickly."  
  
"Succeeded?" Neji couldn't help the remark. "I must have been frozen for many seconds." To be frozen in place in front of an enemy was death for a ninja, and Neji knew Xi could easily have killed him then.  
  
"You were frozen for a time, yes." Xi said, and continued in a lower tone. "Yet the Dragon's Eye can kill a man who meets it unprepared as you did, surviving the first exposure without my needing to aid you is remarkable."  
  
"Hmph," Neji replied. "If I can overcome your lethal techniques that easily, then perhaps it's not worth learning from you." The remark was part bravado, and part serious question. If that truly was capable of killing me, and I overcame it so easily, perhaps the Byakugan is more powerful than anything he can teach me.  
  
Xi's face twisted in anger. "I knew you were arrogant boy, but not that much. Haven't you learned not to underestimate opponents?" Xi took some obvious satisfaction in the sour look that Neji gave him. "Fine, think that I can't teach you. I'll prove it otherwise right now."  
  
"How?"  
  
"You haven't made your decision yet have you?" Xi asked, and Neji answered with a quick nod. "Very well. What you showed me against the Dragon's Eye erased any doubts I had about your potential to be a dragon ninja. I will make certain you chose to learn from me. I offer you a contest. We will fight, here and now. Then if I win you will agree to learn the ways of the dragon ninja, and obey me as your sensei until I deem you are ready. If you win, well I will say that I have nothing to teach you, and I win absolve Konoha of the debt I am owed anyway, you will have won them from me."  
  
Xi's offer crystallized the situation for Neji, offering him a simple way to chose, let it be decided by battle. Except..."Hardly fair, I'm still recovering, and you are considered to be at the very top of the Jounin level at least. How can I have any hope to win?"  
  
Xi laughed, a soft sound that was barely audible, but filled with amusement and energy. "Oh certainly, if this were a true fight. But I will handicap myself severely. I will fight without using any ninjutsu or genjutsu."  
  
"What?" Neji couldn't believe it; this ninja would fight him without anything but Taijutsu? Even Gai-sensei would have some difficulty with that. Unless he has a way to match the Jouyken, he cannot win.  
  
"I will not use genjutsu or ninjutsu, its quite simple. In fact, with this arrangement you should have the advantage. I am a skilled taijutsu user, but I would place my skills slightly above that of Rock Lee, and I do not use Lotus. That should actually give you the advantage." Xi gave him a half-smile, an under-exaggerated motion of his slim mouth.  
  
That would give me the advantage, Neji knew that easily. But why does he have that expression? He must be supremely confident to risk all these debts in such a way. Why? Does he have some trick? "Why would you give me the advantage and still expect to win. That is foolish."  
  
"Because I am a dragon ninja, Hyuuga Neji, and I will show you why you must become one." Xi's smile faded. "Are we agreed?"  
  
Even if he does have some trick, I have a good chance of winning. This is my best opportunity to take back my life that I owe this man. Neji decided quickly. I will beat him. "Agreed."  
  
"Very well then. Do not hold back, for I shall not." Xi said flatly. He pulled a Kunai from his holster and stepped back several feet. "There are no judges, so we will begin when the Kunai hits the ground."  
  
Neji nodded.  
  
Xi tossed the weapon high into the air, spinning straight. He dropped immediately into a fighting pose. His left leg dropped back, and his right knee bent. He extended both arms, keeping his hands extended in tight blades, pointed slightly downward.  
  
"An unusual stance," Neji called, as he moved easily into the Jouyken fighting posture with one arm bent and the other outstretched, palms up, fingertips curled.  
  
"For Jinnen fighting." Xi replied, unmoving. "A lightning style."  
  
The kunai descended rapidly. "Byakugan!" Neji said aloud, calling on his specialized sight. His field of vision widened mightily into the great sphere the Byakugan revealed, and his well-trained mind processed everything he saw to a great distance. He looked at Xi and saw the chakra pouring through his circulatory system. The man had a great store of chakra, but otherwise seemed nothing special. Just as the kunai struck the ground though, Neji thought he saw something strange in the dragon ninja's chakra, but there was no time to consider it, for Xi immediately charged in.  
  
Foolish, to try and fight me in close combat. Neji hurled several shuriken at him anyway, and slashed to the right. This should have forced him to break the steady charge, which was coming on at tremendous speed.  
  
That did not happen. Xi's raised hands moved with blinding quickness, knocking the shuriken away with precision movements, applying just enough strength to deflect them aside. Neji saw the chakra flare in the man with every movement, precisely focusing just the right amount of energy necessary to deflect the attack. As for the charge, chakra flowed into Xi's right leg, increasing the power there, but not into his left, moving him back in line toward Neji without ever missing a stride. Impossible! To use chakra with that focus, to channel it into only one limb and still run with both at a speed to match Lee's. His technique is nothing special, but this level of control rivals my own, and I have the advantage of the Byakugan.  
  
Neji jumped sideways and back, leaping aside from the attack. Xi spun on his left leg, raising his right to reach down for the kunai there, and threw the full four contained in the holster. Due to his position Neji had only one hand with which to defend. It doesn't matter; they won't all arrive at once. The pattern is like this. An instant, and he saw it. His right hand moved with graceful speed, knocking them all away. Still, it was hard to fathom the presence of self to know how to throw all the kunai accurately while spinning on one foot. Neji focused further, watching his opponent's movement with a baleful gaze. "Impressive. Is that how you thought to beat me?" He asked Xi.  
  
"Hardly." The dragon ninja replied. "I simply wanted you to understand my capabilities, even with my abilities your Byakugan more than matches them."  
  
Indeed, Neji had come to that conclusion himself. Still, if I had a level of natural control that he did...how did he get there? Neji pushed the question away. It doesn't matter. I have to win.  
  
Xi smiled inside at the tiny paused in Neji's focus. He's beginning to see.  
  
Neji replied by attacking.  
  
He charged forward, ready to strike a crippling blow. Don't hold back, the man had said, so he prepared to strike Xi with enough force to nearly kill the man by blasting the organs in his chest. Xi stood ready, not moving, but he had changed his guard to a more standard posture. The dragon ninja made no move to draw weapons or dodge aside, even as Neji came crashing in.  
  
If he does not dodge, I will crush him, he cannot block my blows, I will devastate his arms or legs should he try. Close combat against me is foolish, and he should know it.  
  
Still, too late.  
  
Neji's charge was blisteringly fast. Not as fast as Xi's had been, but it would have been terribly hard to dodge, and blocking was useless, but Xi did nothing.  
  
The Hyuuga's palms came forward with a terrible force, to strike Xi in the chest and smother his lungs. So you fail! Neji saw.  
  
The two came together with the brutal sound of flesh smacking straight into flesh, and bodies coming to a stop.  
  
Neji found himself staring at Draci Xi straight in front of him. The dragon ninja had extended his hands and taken Neji's blow full force, but had managed to grasp Neji's own hands in return.  
  
Neji's eyes and mouth spread wide in shock. "Wha-a-t?"  
  
"Simple." Xi said. "Unless the blow is lethal, you can accept it and deal a crippling reverse strike. You did it facing Kidomaru, but you were not fighting like a dragon ninja right now." Xi's hands were terribly bruised, and he was likely unable to channel any chakra through them, but Neji found himself tossed into the air. Before he could raise a defense the dragon ninja struck him hard in the chest with each elbow, and then launched a terrible kick at his midsection. Neji coughed and spat out blood. He went flying back, to slam into the ground hard.  
  
Underestimated him, he decided, but he didn't do too much damage, and now his hands are useless to channel chakra. I can still win.  
  
Neji got up to see that Xi had wasted no time, and was charging in at him.  
  
The dragon ninja was blisteringly fast, the distance too small. Can't block normally, have to-  
  
"Kaiten!" Neji cried out the word as he spun, using the divination whirl, the absolute defense that dashed all attacks to the side with the force of his spinning chakra.  
  
Xi's reaction was equally fast, he slammed his left foot into the ground and launched himself over Neji. Landing solidly on the other side. Still, his body strained from the use of chakra in the move and the acceleration.  
  
Neji turned to face him quickly.  
  
"So that's the Kaiten?" Xi raised an eyebrow. "Impressive, but never believe in an absolute defense boy."  
  
Neji said nothing, but dropped into a crouch, flinging his arms to each side. In his mind, and protected by Genjutsu to Xi's mind, there appeared a ring of symbolic circles, the divination of the Byakugan vision. He had block an ordinary attack like that, but not this. Neji gave Xi a cold smile. "Hakke Rokujyu Yonshou!" The ultimate Hyuuga attack of sixty- four strikes was launched at Draci Xi.  
  
Neji's hands, each with two fingers extended, came in at Xi. As he did so, Neji saw a surge of Chakra through Xi, his whole body twisted and maneuvered. The first two strikes struck, but that was what Xi had anticipated, and intended, for he was already falling downward and back. Those hits only pushed his body down further, and left Neji's following strikes too high, he could see where they must go, but his body could not change them enough once the motion had been launched with those first two blows.  
  
Two tenkenstus closed over Xi's stomach, bad that didn't matter at all to his feet, which kicked out an up with great strength. Neji was struck on both hips, and flew backwards many feet to strike the ground with a tremendously violent thud.  
  
The Hyuuga barely managed to stand up in time to see Xi charging at him, a kunai in his horribly bruised right hand.  
  
The quickness of it all astonished Neji. Xi gave no quarter, but came on mercilessly, never pausing to regain his breath or his chakra. Relentless, unbelievably relentless. If he hits me with the kunai I lose. I have to whirl...now!  
  
"Kaiten!"  
  
Hyuuga Neji timed the move perfectly, so that the spin came across just as Xi's leading attack would hit. But though he saw it, Neji had not had time to interpret one thing, the Kunai was in Xi's left hand, but his leading arm was the right.  
  
The Divination Whirl slammed into the dragon ninja, but he used every ouch of speed and strength to reach out with his right arm and grab Neji's left, leading the spin.  
  
Chakra whirlpooled up in a great and stormy burst, battering both ninja mercilessly. It crashed like a great wave all into the right side of Xi's body, and the backlash slashed with gruesome pain up Neji's left arm, and smashed him in the face and left side.  
  
The spin still carried the two ninja around, but it stopped abruptly, with both battered ninja facing each other.  
  
The damage they had suffered was almost equal, and incredibly painful to both, considering the amount of chakra released in the spin, and both men had taken far more than an opponent simply thrown back would take. It's like when Naruto and I collided, Neji recalled.  
  
The difference then had been that Naruto had managed to think a through the pain and got a final step ahead of Neji.  
  
The difference with Draci Xi was that the dragon ninja had fully intended this, and had a kunai in his left hand.  
  
With his relatively undamaged left leg Xi pivoted forward, and the kunai brushed against Neji's throat. "I win." He said lightly, and smiled at Neji.  
  
Neji nodded. I've lost. I've been outsmarted again, but who would have thought he'd fight like that. What ninja could make himself fight that way?  
  
Xi released his deathgrip on Neji's arm, and without that to support them both ninja fell over immediately. The two lay gasping for breath for a moment, and then Xi managed to sit up. Grabbing the dragon ninja's left hand with his right, Neji pulled himself up as well.  
  
They sat facing each other.  
  
For a moment the two ninja just looked at each other. Neji looked on Xi with a newfound respect. He beat me, with nothing but Taijustsu, he beat me. Neji also looked at the dragon ninja completely differently for another reason. He didn't have to beat me that way, he knew it would be painful, he put himself through that just to make a point. What was that point? Something he said during the battle. Oh, 'unless the blow is lethal you can accept it and deal a crippling revere strike.' Is that what he means by being a dragon ninja? To strike to kill so that can never happen? The idea frightened Neji, but it also intrigued him. My Byakugan does not easily kill, unless I strike the heart, there is always a counter. How do you always have a lethal strike? There were enough questions there, Neji knew. He knew that is was probably better that he had lost, that he did indeed have something, many things, perhaps everything, to learn from Draci Xi. He also understood now how important this considered it to teach him, and wanted to know why.  
  
Xi in return, looked at Neji with respect, and reevaluated him. He does not try to say he was tricked, as he did when Naruto beat him, excellent, and his skills are superb. He is smart enough in battle. He changed tactics quickly when I showed him one method would not work, and he reacted with great speed when I attacked him. His chakra control is as I imagined, with only a little refinement he will be capable of anything. He can control his chakra as well as I now, and I better he can improve to almost double that. Yes, the right choice, precisely, and now he's willing to learn from me. Xi smiled. "I think that may be it for training between us for a while. I feel like my body has been used as a target dummy. I imagine it's about the same for you, perhaps worse." Xi chuckled in that quiet laugh again. "A bit different from you first day with Gai, yes?"  
  
Neji took the comment well. This man lives a dark path, but still has a sense of humor. It made him feel better. "A bit yes." He quipped back, and joined Xi in soft laughter.  
  
When they were quiet again, Xi struggled to stand. Neji did the same, but they ended up leaning against each other. "Well, this is not good."  
  
"Indeed," Xi replied. "Between the two of us we make perhaps one working human. Still, it's not late afternoon, I think we can probably crawl back into Konoha before sunset."  
  
Neji considered the distances seriously for moment without thinking. "I think we can." He said only partly in jest.  
  
"Good," Xi said absolutely seriously. "This will be the first night in eight years to see two dragon ninja, and I'm not spending it collapsed in a field."  
  
A dragon ninja? Neji pondered the words. I suppose that is what I am now. It was a strange feeling, as he and Xi supported each other on the painful walk back, that he had become something different this afternoon. Maybe though, I'm the same, and I've just decided to show a different part of myself. Neji didn't have the answer, but he expected he would find out soon enough.  
  
The two dragon ninjas, one old and one new, were smiling as they staggered into Konoha just before the sun fell below the treetops, to the amazement of everyone on the streets. 


	5. To Begin With Death

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: This will, hopefully, be the last chapter so filled with explanation for a while. I didn't originally intend to explain things so much, but I guess that's what happens some times.  
  
To Begin With Death  
  
Neji spent the next day in the hospital, recovering from a tremendous suite of bruises that covered his entire left side, from the face down to his leg. It was an abject lesson in the dangers of having your own moves turned against you. This lesson was brutally reinforced when he tried to walk about Konoha the next day.  
  
He was largely ignored during those painful hours of walking through the hidden village. The nurses at the hospital had already told Neji that most everyone he knew had been dispatched on missions or on other business. He assumed Draci Xi had communicated his decision to the Hokage about becoming a dragon ninja, and no one else felt they could spare him any time. Neji made himself assume that, he refused to consider the other possibility. That no one would speak to him because they believed he had betrayed Konoha somehow. That certainly was the opinion of the Hyuuga clan, which turned Neji away and told him to go back to the hospital when he had managed to walk all the way over to their compound. In some ways that rejection hurt, and in others it was extremely gratifying, since Neji had struggled for years to make his family angry enough to send him away. I'm still saddled with their accursed seal, but maybe I won't need to worry about it from now on. He decided, though he was unsure about his decision. Still, Neji was more than practiced in the art of forcing his doubts away and cementing himself behind a purpose. A part of him hoped that he did so for the right reasons this time, when he had so often done so for the wrong reasons before. Another part of him did not care, but simply wanted to refuse any misgivings.  
  
On the third morning, Neji saw Draci Xi again.  
  
He was already up, and was trying to loosen his damaged and sore muscles by stretching out in the Hospital halls. Xi came walking deliberately down the halls, his own face tightly set, moving with a distinctive purpose, a type of movement ninja usually avoided, since it gave too much away. His bruises had faded or were covered by his uniform, but Neji could tell he was in significant pain. When he entered the hall his eyes fell on Neji almost immediately.  
  
"You're up." Xi said gravely, keeping the pain from his voice with the low tones. "Good. Gather your equipment and head to the training ground. My little stunt appears to have cost us two days, and we need to make them up."  
  
Neji nodded, but he heard something unsaid in Xi's words, and questioned the command. "Are we in some sort of hurry?"  
  
"In a hurry?" Xi echoed, slightly disbelieving. "You mean aside from the urgent need to train more ninja to get ready for what may be the greatest crisis since the last true ninja war?" The words were laced and scored to emphasize their importance. "Yes, aside from that there is the matter of the two month deadline your Hokage has set me to show progress in your training. So I'm not wasting any more days."  
  
"Two months?" Neji repeated. "That's plenty of time to 'show progress.'"  
  
"Think so?" Xi sneered. "Don't think that becoming a dragon ninja is easy. It took me four months to become skilled enough to use any of our techniques, and I'm quite sure your Hokage dislikes me enough that you're going to have to demonstrate a technique to prove that you've made progress. So, there's no time. Get your stuff and met me there. You have fifteen minutes." He turned and walked back out of the hospital.  
  
Fifteen minutes later Neji's muscles were screaming at him as he stood on the training field. Standing a few feet from Xi he could tell that the older ninja was not really any better off, he was just better at dealing with it. The run to get over here had been brutal. I can't train like this, Neji knew, and he knew Xi had to know that as well.  
  
"Damn!" Xi muttered under his breath, but he must have known Neji could hear. "Well, I had hoped I'd be better off, but it seems there's a strict limit on the kind of things we can do." He motioned for Neji to take a seat on one of the chopped tree stumps that occupied the field. "Since I can't waste any time I guess I'll explain things for a while."  
  
Neji sat, and settled into a posture to protect his damaged left side. This man was not Gai, when he said 'explain things for a while' Neji had the feeling he intended to talk a lot. He was attentive to Xi, since he knew little about the dragon ninja. What is he, how will he train me? He wondered.  
  
"I'm sure Gai told you I have never trained students before." Xi began depreciatingly. That was not how Neji expected Xi to begin, for though Gai had made that point he had not stressed it, and it was hardly a thing most ninja would say. "Perhaps that will make this harder, but I don't know. My own master said that teaching me to be a dragon ninja was entirely different from teaching other genin, so I hope my inexperience will not matter. You are supposed to be a quick study boy, so you'll have to make up for it."  
  
Xi sighed, and made sure Neji was listening. Neji was, and he had also noticed that while he spoke Xi stood stock still, as if he were trained to not move when speaking formally. "I have given it some thought on how to begin." Xi stated. "I had thought to start at the same place my master began with me, but I have decided that will not work. When my training began I had already been an ANBU for over a year and had killed many enemies on missions. Unless you killed someone during the Chuunin exam I am unaware of the first enemy you killed was Kidomaru of the Sound. Am I correct?"  
  
The statement, made lightly by Xi, shot through Neji like a lightning bolt. He had killed Kidomaru. He had not thought about it during his recovery, probably because his memory of the end of that battle was rather hazy, and he had not spent any time standing over his enemy. While recovering he had simply not thought about it at all. "Yes," Neji muttered. "That's right."  
  
The words fell rather flat, and Xi looked at Neji strangely. "You'd forgotten about that hadn't you?" He asked, and continued without waiting for an answer. "That's not surprising, none of us like to dwell on those we have killed. You had fought with lethal intent before that, this time you simply continued all the way through to completion. It is good that Kidomaru was the first one you killed, and not someone else. By killing him you made your mission possible, and performed a deed that protected the innocents of Konoha. By ridding the world of Kidomaru you have done a harsh thing, yes, but to a far greater benefit. It is burdensome, but all ninja bear these burdens. As a dragon ninja we embrace that burden, and take it upon ourselves to bear it so that other ninja might not have to. Do you understand?"  
  
Neji nodded. He did not want to say anything right now, but considered Xi's words most seriously. Xi allowed him the time to do so. It was a strange feeling, to remember killing something. Neji went through the battle in his mind for the first time. He realized that he probably could have retreated at many points during the battle, could have run to catch up with Naruto and the rest of his team. The mission had not been to defeat the Sound ninja, but to retrieve Sasuke. But I stayed and fought the sound nin, even though I knew I was likely to lose. I was outmatched, but I took a wound to myself so that the opportunity would come to defeat him, and when I struck, I killed him. It had been instinctive, coming in the flow of battle, but Neji recognized now that he had decided he would fight Kidomaru until he won or was dead from the moment he told Shikamaru to go on. And to win I killed him.  
  
Neji looked up to find Xi's eyes boring into his face. "I lack your eyes" The dragon ninja said. "But I believe you understand what I have said. There is a saying in the hundred shinobi sayings, one of the darkest of them all, it states: sometimes the cruelest choice is necessary for the greatest good. That saying is half of what the dragon ninja represent. It is that half of us that makes us killers, wielders of lethal jutsu that are used to slay opponents. We exist to take on the burden of dealing the only certain method to eliminate an enemy and restore peace. We are the last resort, used only when both sides have decided there can be no resolution but violence, but once that line has been crossed we strike down foes to save the maximum number of lives by eliminating the enemy. It is as simple as it is harsh, but by doing this we dragon ninja keep this burden off of others."  
  
Xi stood up before continuing, walking over to Neji to drive the next few words home. "This is not a kind path to us, dragon ninja are cold unhappy people, the scions of war and conflict. Few others will ever befriend us, and we are outcast among even our friends. We are acknowledged, but not admired. It is hard, and few can become dragon ninja. Those like you, who have moved into a place that does not exist, a member of the Hyuuga branch family more powerful than one of the head family, are the ones who become dragon ninja. We become vilified to save those who would vilify us. That is half of what it is to be a dragon ninja. Do you understand and accept that Hyuuga Neji?"  
  
Neji met Xi's eyes. How cold, those pupil-less orbs on him, colder even than Hiashi's. Yet Xi knew even before Neji spoke what the answer would be.  
  
"Yes, I accept that." Neji replied quietly.  
  
You say that now, Hyuuga Neji, Xi thought. We shall see how long you say that; one does not become a dragon ninja on the basis of words.  
  
"If one half of being a dragon ninja is this lethal path," Neji said. "What is the other half?"  
  
"The other half is the dragon." Xi said in a much lighter tone. He reached behind him into his flak jacket, and pulled forth a thick scroll bound made of a paper of many blended colors. It was bound with the character for dragon. "All our moves are taken from the inspiration of the dragon, for the dragon is like us, it fights to kill." Xi explained. "So our moves emulate those of the dragon itself, we wield its claws, fangs, tail, and even such things as eyes."  
  
Neji recalled the frightful eyes Xi had used upon him, and understood a portion of what the other ninja meant. "Beyond simply emulating their movements however," Xi went on. "A dragon ninja can summon dragons."  
  
While Neji knew this, since he had been told by Gai-sensei that Xi had summoned a dragon to save him, it was entirely different to have it told openly. To summon a dragon! The most powerful mythical creatures known, how can they be summoned? Many ninja used summoning jutsus of various types; Neji had seen some of them, such as ninja dogs that Kakashi had summoned during one of his many fights with Gai, or the toads that Jiraiya-sama could summon. These were ordinary creatures, even if powerful spirit versions of them could be called by the jutsu, how could one summon a dragon, creatures that existed only in the spirit world, and ruled it?  
  
As before, Xi caught the slight confusion on Neji's face. "You don't believe that really, that I can summon a dragon." He fingered the scroll, and then opened it. "It does seem rather unbelievable, but that's only until you understand how we summon a dragon." He held out the opened scroll. Around the edge traveled a tremendous amount of concise script, but the chief portion of the scroll was sectioned off into little boxes. Into those had been written a single name, inked in the blood of the writer, confirming a pact. "I'm sure you have noticed the grand scroll Jiraiya-sama carries. The sennin's scroll contains the pact for toads summoning, and one who signs the scroll with their blood is given the power to summon toads according to that pact." Xi gestured to a single box on the many-colored scroll. Neji could read it easily, the single character within read Xi. "This scroll is much smaller, and very different. By placing your name here you enter a different sort of pact. I am sure you were told that I keep debts. This is the reason why; this pact allows the one whose name is written to share their debts equally with the dragons. Thus, by taking a debt with them we can summon them, or we can perform them a task and summon them to repay our debts. It is always difficult to keep from owing the dragons, so a dragon ninja must always try to accumulate debts. Once you place your name on the scroll you will understand it better." Xi concluded solemnly.  
  
Neji processed the words quickly, and replied with a telling question. "Why is only your first name on the scroll, why not Draci?"  
  
"Simple." Xi replied. "By placing my name on this scroll I exchanged my family of birth with the family of dragons. That's why I'm Draci Xi. All dragon ninja are Draci. When you become a dragon ninja you will no longer be a Hyuuga, but will be Draci Neji."  
  
No longer be a Hyuuga? The concept shocked Neji. For his entire life his existence had been defined by what he was, a member of the Hyuuga branch family. The cursed seal drawn onto him further marked him as such. How can I become a different being just by signing a scroll? The prospect was uncertain, and Neji found that it caused a cold and ugly feeling down within him. Is this right? Can I truly give up my family in this way?  
  
"So you wish me to sign the scroll?" Neji asked with unease.  
  
"Hardly." Xi scoffed, and rolled the scroll back up with a single flick of the wrist. "You are not truly a dragon ninja yet. When you master the first dragon ninja technique, then I will allow you to take that step, but not until then."  
  
Some time to decide. Fine, I accept that then. Neji grimaced. "You said time was limited, that you had to train me quickly." He gave Xi a dark and feral look, like he often wore when fighting. "So let's train."  
  
"Watch yourself boy!" Xi hissed. "I have explained the essentials to you. If you have learned them fine, I'll teach you the first dragon jutsu." Xi made to shift around, but then turned back to Neji swiftly, pivoting on his good leg. He snapped out a rapid question. "Answer! What is the purpose of this jutsu?"  
  
Neji didn't hesitate for a moment in replying. "To kill." He said the words as cold as ice.  
  
"Good," Xi replied, voice also low. "As I said all our jutsus emulate a weapon the dragon wields. There are not many of them. Tell me boy, how many dragon jutsus do you think the dragon ninja style contains?"  
  
Being called boy was beginning to wear thin with Neji, who had kept track of every time Xi had referred to him that way. He wanted to mention it, but he knew that the dragon ninja would not be swayed. To him, I am just a boy. Hmph, I'll prove him wrong soon enough. He answered confidently, knowing a good deal about the many styles of Konoha. "Counting all taijutsus, ninjutsus, and genjutsus I imagine the style probably has sixty to seventy moves at least."  
  
"Ha!" Xi barked the laugh, but he was obviously not amused. "Sixty to seventy you say. Wrong, utterly wrong. You're forgetting that every dragon jutsu is designed to kill. A dragon ninja only uses lethal moves. Our style contains a mere twenty one techniques."  
  
Only twenty one! No complete style would have so few moves. There were inexperienced genin who knew more moves than that. Indeed, Rock Lee knew that many specialized techniques already, and he could only use taijutsu. There had to be some explanation. Neji reasoned very fast, he was a genius after all, and had a talent for understanding how ninjas work. "Then the dragon ninja techniques are only a small part of your repertoire?" He suggested.  
  
"You still don't understand." Xi snapped, berating Neji. "No, almost all my jutsus are dragon jutsu. Aside from the basic justsus known by all ninja, I know only five other techniques from lightning. They are all lethal moves as well. My taijutsu is based in the lightning style, but I have not learned any specialized techniques with it beyond a single lethal maneuver. Understand boy, the moves of the dragon ninja are more than powerful enough. They require tremendous control and expenditure of chakra, but no opponent will endure more than one of them if you execute them properly. Never think that knowledge of many jutsus increases your ability, as Orochimaru does. Naruto beat you in the chuunin exam using a single jutsu: Kage Bushin. Every jutsu I will teach you is a deadly tool, and used properly you should only need a few tools to solve any problem."  
  
It makes sense, Neji admitted privately. After all, there are only a few techniques I know using the Byakugan, my advantage comes from knowing them perfectly, like knowing my blind spot when fighting Kidomaru. "So what is this jutsu then?"  
  
"Dragon Rend." Xi said, the technique a single thought. "The application of the dragon's claws." He paused. "Attempting to explain further is pointless. I'll just show you."  
  
The dragon ninja turned. His hands snapped down to his thighs in a lightning-quick motion, and when he raised them again Neji saw he was wearing the Nekode on each hand. Xi walked slowly over to one of the target logs. He raised both hands. "Rend!" He shouted, executing the move.  
  
Neji's eyes zeroed in on Xi's hands. The dragon ninja moved with great speed, and tremendous focus. He brought his arms down in a crossing move, and then back across lower, and then back up to complete the motion, a triple slash. It seemed his hands practically glowed as they did so.  
  
Done, Xi stepped away from the log so that Neji could see. Unbelievable! Was Neji's first reaction. Great gouges had been scored into the log, in the pattern that Xi's hands had moved. It was easy to see that they had not been scored with just the nekode, for the triplet slash marks went many inches deep. The wood of these logs is iron hard, Neji recalled, but it seems not to have slowed his hands at all! If you used such a technique on a person it would rip them apart, and likely anything they tried to block with as well. Neji stood up and walked over to the log, confirming what his eyes had seen with his hands.  
  
"That is dragon rend," Xi said slowly, his breath a bit shallow. "It is the simplest of dragon ninja techniques. Razor sharp chakra blades extend from the hands and slash apart anything before them. If you strike a person with this you will rip them asunder."  
  
"Chakra blades?" Neji remarked.  
  
"Yes." Xi responded. "You form the chakra you push out of your hands into blades, sharper than any physical weapon, and then bring the hands down as you cut. The power comes from forming your chakra into a blade as it is released. It requires great chakra control, few ninja can do it, but I am certain you can."  
  
"That is the trick then?" Neji looked Xi in the eye. "To master this jutsu all I have to do is form chakra into blades and hold that form as I cut through something? That does not seem very difficult at all."  
  
"Really?" Xi raised an eyebrow. "Fine boy, try it. I'll even allow you to use your Byakugan to help you."  
  
Neji approached the log. Chakra into a blade? That shouldn't be too hard. I've used chakra to cut things before, like those damn spider webs. Ah, yeah, that should do it. Just take the chakra and cut the log. Really, it's not so difficult. "Byakugan." He said quietly, activating his Hyuuga eyes. Now he could see the flow of chakra perfectly. Just channel a little into my hands, and then make it come out like a blade. And...strike!  
  
Xi watched Neji bring his hands down across the log. Hmm...I can't see chakra like he can, which makes it more difficult, but he's obviously go the beginning of an idea.  
  
Neji's hands came down, and he felt a bit of give in the wood. Yes, no problems. Then he felt everything start to push back. Force came against his fingers, and he could feel his chakra dispersing. What? What's going on? Instants passed, as Neji felt control of the chakra slip from his fingers. Then he felt his fingertips touch the wood, and friction made them stop.  
  
How? He had watched it happen, watched both log and fingers through his Byakugan as he channeled the chakra. I had plenty on the end of my hand, and it shaped to cut easily, why didn't it work? Looking at the log now, Neji could see he had made four marks in it, like he had pushed his fingers into the would, but they were blunt and dispersed, had the log been a person the flesh would have just given under the blow, that wouldn't even cause a bruise.  
  
Hmm...Xi looked closely at the marks Neji had made in the wood. Not bad, not bad at all. In fact, way better than I expected. He actually managed to shape and channel chakra into a stream from each finger. No cutting, but so what, he put together enough controlled chakra that he really only needs to be able to make blades to do the move. Still, I'm sure that's the Byakugan at work, to let him see the chakra stream out of his hands. That will need to improve. Xi let Neji consider things himself for a moment, and then spoke. "It looks like you formed your chakra into rods and smashed the log with them. That'll never work. They have to be blades, sharper than any knife you've ever seen. Still, you made it harder than it had to be."  
  
"I know my chakra was forming to cut." Neji said firmly. "I am certain of it."  
  
"And if it was?" Xi replied. "If you use the wrong amount of chakra to make blades, even a bit too much or too little the form will fall apart, and you won't be able to cut. You need to release, form, and maintain that precise amount of chakra the whole time, the blades of chakra need to be just as permanent as these blades here." Xi gestured to the tines extending past each finger on his nekode. He reached into his shuriken bag, and tossed something to Neji with a flick of the wrist.  
  
Nekode, one for each hand, and sized exactly for me. Neji noted all this as they traveled towards him, and then grabbed them out of the air with one hand. "What are these for?" He asked Xi.  
  
"Focus." The dragon ninja returned. "Imagine the chakra blades lining up under the nekode, they have to be sharper and stronger than those blades. They have to maintain that position. It provides a focus for the chakra to wear the nekode, making the jutsu significantly easier, since it concentrates your attention, which is required for the precision. While you could possibly do the jutsu without them, it would be at least one hundred times as difficult. I've never done rend without wearing the nekode." Xi said solemnly. He continued in a slightly different tone. "You, however, should eventually not need them, since you can actually see the chakra while I cannot. For now though, you should use them to learn."  
  
Taking up the light weapons, Neji recognized that they were new, and had been built specially. He must have had them made after we fought, he decided. They are exactly the right size. Neji noted that, and determined Xi was more perceptive than he had originally thought. He put them on, and noted the fit, but said nothing about it. "So what now?"  
  
"Practice making blades boy, until you can do it. Find out how much chakra you need by doing it. You know the rest of the steps, I'm not going to explain them again." Xi sat back down. "Since we managed to beat each other into such a mess, I'm not going anywhere. You can ask me questions if you must, but a 'genius' like you should have no problem just making blades of chakra."  
  
Neji focused in on the log in front of him. Blades of chakra. That was what he had to achieve. He took Xi's words and analyzed them, breaking them apart slowly, piece by peace. Determine the amount of chakra, focus them into blades, hold the blades in place steadily, keep them the same size and sharp, focus the blades again. Neji was a brilliant ninja. No one would contest this. He had an ability to take a single idea and determine its potential, and then build upon that, as he had when he conceived of using the Kaiten. That brilliance helped him less now, when he simply had to figure out a task that required the utmost focus and repetition, but he was still able to break things down into more individual steps than almost any ninja would have been able to, making the process easier. I will do this, Neji had decided. He stared at the log, focused his chakra with utter resolve, and was ready. He was an arrow, and the target was rend. He launched himself.  
  
Hmm...Xi marveled at the cold focus in Neji's eyes. Ah, I see why he believed so much in potential now, Xi noted. It was not just his upbringing as part of the Hyuuga branch family. He works as hard as anyone. As a dragon ninja, Xi was a cold realist. He knew that some people were born with talents others lacked. "A dropout can overcome a genius through hard work?" An interesting sentiment. Neji had tried to mock Naruto with it, only to have it blow up in his face. But Uzemaki Naruto was never a dropout, that was a foolish perception on Konoha's part, and he didn't win because of hard work, but because he had a demon inside him and because he outwitted Neji. This Hyuuga boy works as hard as any dropout, Xi decided as Neji continued to expend his chakra in his attacks on the log, never wavering, and each time making progress, even if only a tiny amount. Never discount anyone just on what you think of their potential, anyone can find a way to kill, but if there are two people who work equally hard, the one who had a greater potential will win. Hyuuga Neji is a rarity among rarities, not only is a he a genius ninja, but he is one willing to put in hard work. In two months, he'll be Draci Neji. 


	6. Exhaustion Shift

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: This a short chapter, focused almost entirely on one thing, Neji's first dragon ninja technique. This chapter, and likely several that will follow, has instances where the viewpoint shift's from Neji to Xi. I've tried to make that as clear as possible, since it can be confusing, but is hard to avoid in this sort of dual protagonist setup.  
  
Oh, if people are actually reading this, I would ask that you take the time to write at least a short review, its always very encouraging.  
  
Exhaustion Shift  
  
The sun beat down hard, but Neji didn't feel it anymore. Every muscle in his body ached, but he didn't feel that anymore. His eyes burned and wrenched from the torture he was putting them through, but he didn't feel that anymore. Hands curled into a half-bent position, bearing nekode, unable to change posture, but he didn't feel that anymore either. There was only one thing Neji was focusing on, the battered and scourged piece of wood in front of him, and only one word going through his head. "Rend!"  
  
He screamed the word as he brought his hands down, and then across, and then back up. Chakra flowed out from those hands, forming instantly into blades sharper than the mind could see. Those blades made contact with wood, and the chakra started to disperse, cutting, but also breaking up. More chakra flowed from Neji's hands, keeping the blades steady, sharpening the ever-dulling point at a constant level. His eyes flickered, unable to maintain focus for a moment. No, must focus, mustn't lose it now, so close. Yet his eyes drifted out, losing focus on those blades of chakra, and they took in the wood. It seemed as if they tracked something moving through the wood for a moment, strange channels of chakra that were spreading and moving. W-what? Neji thought, and then forced it away. Must focus, he could feel his concentration slipping. No use, my eyes can't do it anymore. They're deceiving me. In desperation, Neji acted by reflex alone, and forced his pained eyelids to move, to snap down and close, taking his vision away.  
  
Eyes closed, but the image of the blades remained. Neji saw it burned into his mind, those blades of chakra, seeing them behind his eyes. He saw the chakra flow inside his head, how the blades formed, dissipated, and then re-sharpened, always matching the nekode blades they were modeled on. The image was there, graven into him from the hundreds of times he had performed rend. Seeing that image, uncluttered by what his eyes were telling him, without their distractions, Neji could feel the chakra completely. He suddenly knew how to complete the last step, to pass those chakra claws through the wood completely, how movement of his hands would change them, he could see in his mind a moment ahead in time, and determine what he had not been able to with vision alone.  
  
His arms came down, crossed, dropped to the bottom of their arcs, and then came straight back up. When he finished, Neji's eyes snapped back open.  
  
The beaten log, one of many marked by failed attempt after failed attempt, bore the styled three gouges, each with the visible perfect cuts of the rend. He had ripped the wood with the dragon's claws.  
  
Emotion drained out of Neji completely, and he felt the strength of will that had been keeping him going collapse. He knew it was coming, so he simply let strength leave his knees, and fell to the ground. Finally done, was all he thought in that moment.  
  
Draci Xi heard Neji fall to the ground. Huh? He wondered. Has he collapsed from exhaustion again? Its too early for that isn't it? He paused in his own practice some distance away and looked. No, he's fallen. I suppose I'd better go see why. Xi was annoyed today, and had been for some time. Neji was the source of his annoyance. One week left, Xi reminded himself. One week left on the 5th's deadline. If he doesn't master rend I'll have to give him up, and it looks more and more like that will happen. That wasn't so infuriating by itself, if Neji had shown no talent at all for learning the dragon ninja move Xi would have accepted that, and while he would have considered it a failure on his part, the current situation was far more aggravating. One step from completion! It was ridiculous. Three weeks stuck just learning the very last part of rend!  
  
Neji had mastered the earlier portions of the jutsu with great speed, learning how to form and maintain chakra blades, even how to cut things with them. Xi had been astonished at the ninja's progression, almost four times the speed of his own when he was learning. Then, when all that remained was to bring the rend through a resisting object, Neji had faltered. He can do everything perfectly, except maintain the technique through its full motion. He can't even get any significant way into an object; everything just breaks down. As it is now, he'd cut an inch into someone and all the charka would vanish into the air. The most infuriating part was that Xi had no real idea what the problem was. He had been able to intuit this trick out almost instantly, the one piece of rend that had not been a long and terrible struggle. It must be the byakugan, Xi knew, that was the only explanation for why he couldn't offer Neji any help. He'd tried to compensate for it, had tried any number of things, even blindfolding Neji and telling him to do the technique that way. That might have worked, if Neji hadn't needed his eyes to actually begin the technique at all. A habit to break him of, Xi had decided, but had acknowledged that wouldn't work now.  
  
Xi turned and approached Neji, lying spread out on the ground, staring at the sky. Look's fine to me, why's he lying there? He scowled, and then the corner of his eye caught a glimpse of the log Neji had been practicing at.  
  
Xi spun about in shock. Those gouges! He actually did it! Xi deliberately steeled his face to not show any emotion, and made sure to keep his voice steady when he decided to speak. "So." He said slowly, weighing every word, for Xi had been extremely cautious with praise so far, and was uncertain how much he ought to complement Neji. "You managed to use rend fully. That's good. I'm aware of how tried you are, since I'm getting ridiculously burnt out trying to work in this sun, but you need to get up and do it again. Successfully rend twice more, and then we'll try on last thing and call this day finished."  
  
"Ah." Neji managed from the ground. Even collapsed as he was, he was not idle. Instead, he had considered the difference between doing rend the last time, and how he had done it before. By doing so he had caught something. When I try to watch all the chakra flowing, I put myself a step behind. I was trying to correct as I go, but I needed to be thinking ahead to maintain the blades. He immediately reasoned one step beyond that. I should be able to see what I must do by watching the blades, I just have to consider what its showing me indicates what needs to happen ahead of my hands, and correct that way. It should be much easier this way. Neji could already sort out the indications he had seen in the chakra flow that guiding him to what he needed to do. He could use those indicators to assess his mental image, and keep it whole constantly, instead of trying to reshape the blades as they fell apart as he had done before.  
  
Painfully putting his hands on the ground, Neji levered himself upright.  
  
My, he's way more beat up than I expected. Xi thought, looking at him. That he can even stand in that condition is impressive. Has he been practicing until he collapses?  
  
Neji jerkily stepped over to another log, this one likewise marked and marred by all his failed attempts at rend. I have enough chakra. He decided. And, my eyes work still. He summoned the byakugan and raised his arms.  
  
"Rend!" He snapped both arms down, automatically falling into the crossing pattern. Now, looking at the log in front of him, judging the flow of chakra was automatic, he felt no resistance at all as his hands slid through the wood. Indeed, his eyes were more steady, he did not have to focus nearly so hard. Because of this Neji noticed something strange. Chakra is leaking all through the log? He had only an instant to see it, but with the Byakugan he was able to see tiny channels of chakra leaking away from the blades and moving all through the log. So that's where the chakra dissipates to, he decided, as the move finished.  
  
If anything, this one's better than before. Xi decided, looking at the deep marks Neji had placed into the wood. He would certainly kill his opponent. That was probably enough to let it go, Xi could see that Neji was suffering from a lack of chakra, and from shear exhaustion. He might not even be able to extract enough chakra to do the move again. Dragon ninja jutsus, since they provided killing force, used up a lot of chakra. Much less than the lethal jutsus of most other styles because of the reliance on perfect control, but still a tremendous amount of chakra. Considering how much Neji's been practicing, his stamina is tremendous. His chakra reserves approach that of many jounins.  
  
"Do it once more." Xi told him. "Then we're done."  
  
Neji turned to a third log, and gathered his chakra again. Huh, not very much left. I don't know if I'll be able to cut al the way through. He steeled himself. No, I'm finishing this today. He gathered himself and readied his hands, which ached and burned. His eyes, however, felt much better, since he had returned his Byakugan vision to a much wider field, instead of forcing it down and confined.  
  
"Rend!" Neji struck for the third time. It was much the same, but again, he noticed those strange channels of chakra. Why does it leak out that way? He wondered. Shouldn't the chakra disperse uniformly? Unless these channels represent some sort of way to release chakra that would otherwise get stuck in the log. Neji had an idea suddenly, as he had when the idea to spin and release chakra at once had shown him the possibility of Kaiten. He wasn't sure how it would work, but he expected something would happen if he flooded those channels with chakra.  
  
It was an impulsive thing to do, for he simply channeled every bit of chakra he had into the blades on his hands, tapping reserves he didn't knew were there. Once he began, Neji couldn't really stop, and he found that chakra was simply flowing out of him into the blades. Have to channel it! Have to force it through the blades and into the wood! There seemed a moment when everything held in place, and Neji focused chakra flow as long as he could will it to happen, forcing it through blades and out into the wood, as long as he could hold on and see it. It seemed to take forever, time froze and his hands inched at a tremendously slow pace. Then he couldn't hold on anymore. His body spasmed, and his eyes snapped shut defensively.  
  
Neji felt himself fall, and then everything went blank.  
  
The middle of the log, where his hands had rested, exploded.  
  
"What!" Xi shouted, as shards of wood flew everywhere, some of them with enough force to embed in his clothes and skin. "What happened? Neji?"  
  
The boy lay on the ground, twitching. Wood shards had splintered all over his hands and arms. Xi knelt down to examine him. Phew, the wounds aren't serious. But what's wrong with him? Xi squinted. It's his chakra! Damn, that's bad, he used up too much chakra, and his body doesn't really have enough now. He gave a much more thorough examination of Neji, trying to determine how serious the problem was, all the while berating himself. I shouldn't have had him do this a third time, he'd already mastered rend, there was no need to try and prove it. A long tense moment passed, and Xi was able to confirm that Neji wasn't dying. Well, it seems he'll be all right, more or less. His chakra reserves are great; he just probably won't be able to move well for a few days, or mold any chakra. Still, he shouldn't have used up as much as he did. Trying to rend with the amount of chakra he put out, that should have destroyed the move. Instead, he made the log practically burst apart. How?  
  
Xi thought about it for a while. I really don't know, he decided. It must have something to do with all that extra chakra he released. It's as if he put additional blades all through the log, and then ripped them out all at once, but how could you do that? With chagrin Xi realized, I'm going to have to ask him to explain. Who would have thought that? You really are a genius boy. Though it appears geniuses have to prevail upon Konoha's hospital rather often.  
  
As gently as he could, Xi picked up Neji's now stable form and began the long walk back into Konoha. He was disappointed in himself for pushing Neji so far, but also pleased. He didn't know what had caused it, but his pupil had finally mastered the dragon rend. The witch's deadline is beaten, and you have a scroll to sign, Draci Neji. 


	7. Gathering Charge

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: In contrast to the previous chapter, this one is extremely long, be patient with it. It is also the last chapter that takes place in Konoha, at least for some time. Getting out of Konoha took far long than I anticipated, and the story arc I have in mind is shaping up for immensity (This chapter brings things to over 30,000 words just in Konoha). Again, please leave a review if you read, regardless of what you think.  
  
Gathering Charge  
  
Vision returned with a slow, cloudy feeling, as the veils before him parted to reveal a white background, and featureless walls. The hospital again? Neji wondered. How did I get here? He lay unmoving for a moment, noticing that he felt healthy, for there was no pain anywhere, but terribly weak. He could tell that his body seemed to have no energy, and no chakra. I used too much, he realized immediately. It must have been that last move.  
  
"Getting awfully familiar with this room aren't you?" Neji heard the sarcastic voice of Draci Xi. "Best not to make too much of a habit of it, I believe the nurses are getting irritated."  
  
"Heh." Neji exhaled the weak sound. He turned his head and saw Xi sitting quietly in a chair next to his bed. The older ninja appeared to have been reading some sort of report. He looked fine. Damn, Neji thought. Has he been watching me like this? He hated the idea of showing weakness in front of the dragon ninja, no matter how strong the man was. "I'm fine." He said with as much strength as he could manage. "I'll be up in a minute."  
  
"You're not fine." Xi said, without blinking or moving. "You could have seriously damaged your chakra permanently. Still, sleeping for two and a half days ought to have restored your health. Feel free to get up whenever you decide you can manage it, I don't care as long as you don't try to mold any chakra. If you keep to that you'll be fine tomorrow, which you'd better be, since you have an appointment to keep with the 5th Hokage."  
  
"Appointment?" Neji wondered, not willing to try and dredge through the fog of memory right now.  
  
"To prove you've become a dragon ninja boy." Xi replied irritably. "It works like this, you show her rend, the witch stops bothering me, you sign the scroll, I show you how to summon a dragon, and then we go on a mission."  
  
That was a lot of information at once. Neji processed it slowly, his mind still only partly awake. He'd heard most of what Xi mentioned before, but one word snapped him fully awake, and actually upright. "Mission?" He asked crisply.  
  
"Caught your attention?" Xi mused. "Yes, mission. A team of chuunin from Konoha went on a courier mission for a lord in the northwestern part of the country. They were supposed to deliver a prisoner exchange agreement. A team of ninja from Hidden Waterfall ambushed them. Konoha's team escaped with the documents, but they were wounded, and the Waterfall ninja are blocking the path. I've offered to have us clean the mess up."  
  
"We take the document through?" Neji asked, assuming that was the mission.  
  
"No." Xi admonished. "Are you forgetting what we are? This is a minor matter, but if Waterfall discovers Konoha can't put forth the strength to stop this sort of thing, Waterfall might think they can annex Fire territory. Our job is to go up there and break the Waterfall ninja, either force them to flee or kill them. That's why I've chosen to offer to do this mission."  
  
"Go and kill them." Neji repeated the words, turning them over in his mind. It was an unpleasant prospect, extraordinarily unpleasant. Yet it was one he'd known would come, ninja were always called to make assassinations eventually. If this could prevent a war...and the Waterfall ninja had interfered...perhaps it was necessary. Neji nodded. "All right, I'll go."  
  
"It's not like you have a choice boy." Xi said, rather angrily, but Neji saw that his eyes said something different. He was glad Neji had made the choice freely, it confirmed something indefinable but vastly important. "It's my mission, and I'm bringing you along. The witch won't like it, but once you prove you're a dragon ninja she won't have grounds to object. After all, this is what I promised her, a ninja who could do this sort of thing."  
  
Those were more dark words to sit deep within Neji, the promise of a life of killing missions. It was a hard thing to think on, that he would be doing this. He recalled what Xi had said of it. That someone must do these things. Better me then, he determined, and discovered he meant it. He recalled Naruto, and Shikamaru, and even Hinata of the head family. Better me than any of you, I've already brushed the darkness, I understand what this means. You, you should never have to do this, especially you Naruto, its not your way. My choice to kill, my skill, I should be the one to do it.  
  
Xi watched Neji silently as he thought about the dragon ninja's words, but said nothing. After a moment he turned away, and then stood up, a sudden jolting motion that disturbed the quiet equilibrium of the hospital room. "Do what you want for today, so long as you don't try to mold chakra, the day is yours. Walk around; see people, talk to people. I doubt many of your friends are here, but take the chance to see Konoha well. You should appreciate the village, since you never know when you'll see it again." Xi paused, and then added in a truly dark tone, one that seemed to resonate from mysterious place deep within the dragon ninja. "If you ever see it again."  
  
With that ominous warning, that spoke of something dark hidden in the dragon ninja, Xi turned and left.  
  
Neji was left trying to consider the meaning of his sensei's words as he lay upon the hospital bed. In the end he could not come to any conclusions. I have trained side by side with him for two months. I know a technique that no other in the shinobi world knows besides him and me, I have seen him practice his own lethal techniques, and yet I know nothing about him beyond what Gai sensei told me. Neji tried to reflect not on that knowledge, but on what he had seen and sensed of Xi. His perception of the dragon ninja was that of a withdrawn man, one who had lived for the most part alone for much of his life. A man who had been an oddity, who had a background he would hide, not for himself, but because he felt it was his own responsibility. Neji saw Xi as a conundrum among ninja, a lone operative, among people who worked almost entirely in teams. He had not been able to find any reason why Xi decided to take him as an apprentice. Every moment training under the man Neji had realized how uncomfortable Xi was with the arrangement. He is not a teacher, that much was obvious.  
  
This perception of Xi only partly matched with what Neji had been told. Gai had spoken of an ANBU member and a Hunter-nin, and not captain of either. He used to serve on a team, until eight years ago. Something happened then, something that changed him. Neji could see that, but he could also see that Xi would never tell him. I think he would probably die before revealing what happened eight years ago, at least now. It was obvious that was part of what had happened to Xi, but there was another reason why he worked alone. Draci Xi is so powerful. He dwarfs Gai sensei with his chakra, and all that chakra is focused to kill. I don't know how he compares to the Hokage, maybe I will see tomorrow, but even a skilled jounin cannot equal him, he does not need teammates. Why does he bring me along? Even though Neji knew it was essential that he go on missions to further his training, he was certain of this much: to Xi I am merely a hindrance.  
  
I will not stay that way, Neji resolved. Xi was not his friend, the disparity between them was to great for such a thing, but he respected the man as much as he ever had Gai-sensei. I will become worthy of this dragon ninja. He has said I can, so I will. This was hardly something Neji had to confirm, for he was always focused on becoming as strong as possible. His vision was focused on the future at all times, and with his sight he could cast his glance far further in that direction than most ninja. Xi's character might be a darkness he could not penetrate, but he had seen the dark glimmers in the dragon ninja's eyes. Something is coming, and soon. I will need to match him, Neji realized. Or the dragon ninja won't last past this.  
  
At length Neji came to a dead end in his dour thoughts, and decided he needed to get up. He had one of the nurses bring him breakfast, and ate heartily, trying to replenish his stamina. When he was done Neji left the hospital, though he agreed with the nurses that he would come back before sunset, they were apparently very concerned with young ninja running off these days.  
  
Hyuuga Neji walked up and down the streets of Konoha with no particular destination. This was not something he did often, as a focused person he preferred to travel from one place to another, and not meander aimlessly, but he had no destination. Konoha seemed strange to him. It was not the happy, pleasant place he remembered, even if he had never been happy and the village had seemed like a cage. Now though, it seemed poised on the brink. The streets had few people on them, and many of those were ninja moving about hurriedly. The happy air so common to the days of the 3rd Hokage was gone, everything seemed different. Has it truly become so bleak? He wondered. Or do I simply see things differently now? Neji was unsure. Perhaps it is both, he decided finally, after spending a great deal of time on the streets. There was still happiness, and if the sheltering walls provided less of a sense of safety than before, perhaps that had been a false sense in the first place. This was a world of ninja, and as such it took a great deal of strength to impose any stability upon it. The 3rd had been the cornerstone that anchored the rest of the wall of trying to hold back the tide of war beyond. Orochimaru had removed that cornerstone, and the wall balanced precariously on its replacement. The image stuck with Neji as he walked, and through it he got a better realization of his path as a ninja. Some ninja try to build that wall higher and stronger, like Naruto or the 5th. Xi and I, we try and lower the tide beyond. It was an image Neji decided he liked.  
  
Konoha was not deserted, and there were people for Neji to speak to. He met several genins he had known in the academy, or those he had met while serving under Gai-sensei. They were not truly friends, but he was able to catch up on the news of Konoha, which he had largely missed while training constantly. Some of it was positive, some of it saddening, but by and large things had not changed greatly it seemed, and would not likely change for some time. Neji took heart from that. He had drifted away from Konoha in the past two months, but it had not drifted so far away from him.  
  
As the sun began to set there was a final thing that occurred to Neji. I do not really belong in Konoha now, he thought. I am somewhere else, partly here, partly in the world of Draci Xi. Perhaps though I can fit back into this village when I have fully achieved myself as a dragon ninja. He hoped so, for he had found that this village he thought he despised, really came surprisingly close to being home after all. With that though in his head Neji cemented the image of all that Konoha was in his mind, determined not to forget it wherever he traveled beside the dark dragon ninja.  
  
At sunset he returned to that blank white room in the hospital.  
  
The morning would come early.  
  
* * *  
  
"Wake up boy." The harsh speech of Draci Xi brought Neji to instant alertness, as any ninja ought to be when coming awake. "We've got a lot to do now. So move." Xi called from the door of his room.  
  
Neji got ready quickly, not wasting any time. He understood the importance of today just as much as Xi. I have to prove that I'm a dragon ninja, not just to Hokage-sama, but to Xi as well. He got dressed, bound his long hair with ribbon and forehead protector, and wrapped the bandages about his limbs. Doing this made him feel ready, and allowed him to confirm that he had regained his strength and ability to mold chakra. Perhaps not full strength yet, Neji determined, but close enough. In a few short minutes he was on his way out of the hospital.  
  
Xi walked beside him, and did not hurry, something Neji found odd. The dragon ninja usually had a strange purposeful pace for a ninja, a focus about his actions that many other ninja either lacked or did not wish to portray. Today he walked calmly, taking in the early morning sun, and seemingly unconcerned. It made Neji wonder. Is he not confident? That would be strange. There was a mysterious quality to Xi, but Neji wouldn't have thought he was doubted so much. I proved I could use Rend, and I will do it again, so what is there to worry for?  
  
"Neji," Xi spoke, with an uncharacteristic seriousness that seemed to break rocks, and he used Neji's real name, something he almost never did. Always it is Hyuuga Neji, or just boy, never 'Neji.' Why now?  
  
"Since we have a spare moment I wanted to ask you something." Xi said cautiously in that incredibly serious tone. "I don't know if you will precisely remember the circumstances, but I would like to know what you did right before you passed out."  
"Right before I passed out..." Neji realized he hadn't thought heavily on the incident since then, but that it remained clear in his mind. He'd focused on making certain he would be able to use rend today, and so had mostly ignored the unpleasantness of his collapse. Now thinking back on it, Neji saw that he had made some form of discovery, though it was had to get from the fog of his memory of that moment exactly what had happened. What was it...oh, those channels. He looked up at Xi. "When I used rend the second time I saw channels in the wood."  
  
"Channels?" Xi asked, apparently thinking the reference random.  
  
"Yes." Neji said carefully. "There were channels in the wood, tiny runnels where the chakra that leaks out from the blades goes."  
  
A momentary look of shock passed over Xi's face, as he apparently considered the implications of what Neji had said with almost the same rapidity Neji himself had discerned them. Yet he said nothing, only nodded that Neji should continue.  
  
More hesitantly now, the genius continued his description. "It seems like I did something to those channels the third time." He spoke even lower, unwillingly to be confident in speculation without confirming it himself. "I think I filled them with chakra."  
  
"Filled them with chakra?" Xi muttered. "So that they burst?"  
  
"Burst?" The question was surprising. Neji could remember anything past filling the channels with chakra. Had that been what I was trying to do? He simply could not recall, he had collapsed before the move was even finished. Yet he was not about to simply let Xi's words go. The dragon ninja had certainly meant something by the remark. "I can't remember, by why do you say they burst?" He asked harshly.  
  
"Because the half of the log you completed the rend upon burst into splinters." Xi replied without inflection. "Your explanation seems to make sense, though I can really only guess. I am unable to see chakra channels or anything of the sort." Xi gave Neji something that approached a smile, though it felt hollow to the younger ninja. "Still, it seems my original guess was correct, with your Byakugan you can do things with dragon techniques that have never even be dreamed of. For today though, just rend in the regular fashion."  
  
"Ah." Neji replied.  
  
They walked the rest of the way in silence, in the quiet early morning of Konoha. The quiet that had settled over the Hidden Village with the death of the 3rd Hokage had yet to be dispelled, and perhaps would not lift for a long time. It was so different from how lively and happy this village had been only a few months before. Neji, who had spent those days considering Konoha to be his own prison, felt little for the change. I am still here, he knew, even if he had discovered that the village meant more to him than he previously thought, he could not really appreciate what Konoha had lost until he truly knew something else.  
  
Xi's reaction to the quiet and tension that saturated the city was a far more potent thing. It seems as if the Leaf lost it soul when Sarutobi died, and now, it is still waiting to be reborn. Xi had been a spy in Konoha off and on for over three years. He had seen the city at its best, in those happy years. He had watched Naruto paint the stone faces of the Hokage's in bright colors; he had seen countless genin train, and the happiness of troubled ninja who found a safe place. There was something that had been created here that other places lacked. The other hidden villages are not like that, Xi knew, for he had been to them all, perhaps the only ninja in the world who had seen every home of the ninja. Stone, Sand, Mist, Rain, Grass, Waterfall, even my own Cloud, they are not like Konoha was. The Leaf rested at peace, and imposed its peace upon the rest of the shinobi world. Even I, the killing lightning stroke who exists only for conflict, I did not break this peace. Perhaps that is why I am willing to fight for the Leaf now, because I have seen the other visions of the world, and do not wish them to take hold. The Dragon ninja did not like the quiet in Konoha, but he had no solution to it. As always, I have only one thing I can do, kill the enemy. Neji, you have your chance to prove you can do so as well today. Xi hoped he would succeed. Two dragons scare off far more circling sharks than just one.  
  
They arrived at the training field. Tsunade waited for the pair of dragon ninja, accompanied by two chuunin burned by tremendous stacks of reports. The sennin had a grim expression as she stared at one, and seemed on the verge of ripping the page apart.  
  
Neji saw this and was amused, though he would not be so disrespectful as to let it show. He glanced out of the corner of his eye at Xi, expecting to see that half-smile on the older ninja's face, since he appeared to dislike Tsunade this situation should satisfy him. Instead he saw something that frightened him, and made him instantly serious.  
  
Xi had shifted his motion, he moved with a deliberately relaxed appearance, but his muscles chorded at the ready, and his body had tensed. Chakra gathered within him, surging and ready for release. Eyes sharpened and focused, tracking targets, strengths, and weaknesses. The hands clenched stock still, and his arms hung low, ready to arm his nekode in an instant. Turning back to Tsunade, Neji saw that she had tensed up as well, strength gathered in her limbs and she seemed to actually sink into the ground with the force of her steps. Chakra hung laden in the air about the training ground.  
  
Why? Neji wondered. What is all this killing force for? We are not enemies. It confused him for only a moment. But neither are we allies, and Xi, for all that I know him, was still a spy in Konoha for a time. He is not trusted for that. A more disturbing possibility eked up from the bottom of Neji's mind behind that. Or is it because he is a dragon ninja, and is therefore dangerous? He hoped that was not the case. That it was simply ninja of such power from different villages could never truly relax around each other, because otherwise they would give far too much of an opening. Regardless, Neji gathered his own chakra and focused himself, not wanting to be caught off guard if something strange happened. Though he could not, being honest with himself, decide what he would do if a fight should break out between his Hokage and Draci Xi.  
  
Tsunade tossed her report angrily at one of the Chuunin. She gave Xi a baleful stare. "All right, dragon ninja. You said you were going to show me your progress today. I'm busy, so let's get this over with."  
  
Xi did not take his eyes off Tsunade. "Pick a target boy, and use the dragon jutsu I taught you." He ordered Neji, voice flat.  
  
They continued staring at each other as Neji walked over to one of the remaining logs. The two chuunin seemed unsure where to place their attention, at the staring contest between the two powerful ninja, or on Neji. A short cry changed their minds easily.  
  
"Byakugan!" Neji called, holding the seal to activate his bloodline limit. His eyes clenched, and the veins and nerves behind them swelled. The hidden pupils formed into being, outlined by a fractioned lens that allowed him to see through anything. His vision expanded out to encompass almost a complete sphere about him, so that he could see the four ninja who stood behind him. His gaze sharpened, revealing the chakra circulation in all the ninja, and all about the environment. The eyes of the Hokage bored in on him, judging.  
  
It was simple to remember what he had done during the heat of that day. The image of blades of chakra was bored into his mind, graven there, and he knew what it would take to wield them through this wood. He gathered the energy with care, making sure everything was ready, then he let his gaze drift down to his hands. The moment crystallized, and Neji recognized that the step he was about to take was irreversible. His confidence was boundless; he could complete the move with ease, and rend the log and tear it as a dragon ninja would. Yet it was his choice to do so or not. If I do this, I become a dragon ninja, and no one will ever consider me anything else. Should I fail, I will be taken away from Xi, and given a chance to become just another ninja of Konoha again. For an instant Neji was tempted to fail, to throw aside pride and what he had learned so that he would not have to walk the dragon ninja path side by side with the killer he barely knew. During that instant he looked into the faces of both Tsunade and Xi, feeling their eyes upon him. One the Dragon Ninja, the cold killer who lived the dark and burdened life that he had not hidden from his pupil, the other the kind Hokage, a medical specialist, a healer, and perhaps the savior of Konoha. Each represented a possible path, and Neji was torn, not sure which he wanted to chose. Chakra lingered at his fingertips, ready but not yet used.  
  
Yet the gaze of the Byakugan does not look in only one way, and even as he weighed those faces, Neji saw the log before him. He remembered those strange channels he had seen, what he had done with them, a technique that unleashed a force he could not imagine. Seeing that he realized something. I could chose either path, neither option calls to me stronger than the other, but one path is shorter than the other, and ends without what I did last that day. No, I will choose the longer path. Neji made the irrevocable choice. There is something I see in the dragon way that gives me a chance to escape the fate Hyuuga gave me. I must take that chance, for it will never come again.  
  
It was an instant, and then it was done. Chakra flashed forth from Neji's hands, already descending at brilliant speed. They shifted into blades with a simple focused thought, brilliant edges of life energy, with the unmatched sharpness of the mind. "Rend!" The sound expelled in time with the chakra, as the force churned around Neji in a tempest of power. His hands came down, and made contact with the wood, but his vision was already seeing what would happen, the chakra shifted, but his mind had already moved faster, with the speed of thought, it had adjusted, and the blades retained their brilliant edge as they moved through the wood. Before that cutting surface the hardest and most aged wood was as dust, and the claws of Neji's chakra slashed through them without slowing, indeed he hands gained speed with the momentum of the move.  
  
Down, cross, down once more, and then up.  
  
The crossed slash pattern of rend was completed, and the dragon's claws scored and ripped apart all before them. Brilliant perfect lines stretched in the wood as Neji took a single step back, revealing the damage he had inflicted. Four lines from each hand, matching the tines of the nekode, lined up with the fingers, in the pattern that assured the destruction of the body. For that moment the hands of Hyuuga Neji had become the dragon's claws.  
  
The jaws of both observing chuunin dropped wide open in shock, and they were dumbstruck. To see a jutsu of such unbelievable lethality, and such perfection of execution! It had been impossible to follow, the Hyuuga's hands moved, and the log was ripped asunder. Both sank to the ground, barely holding their reports.  
  
Tsunade's reaction was much less extravagant. She was impressed, and her face flashed with it, visible to Neji's eyes, but then came under rigid control. Anger spread over her countenance like a landslide about to break. "So, Draci Xi. You have taught a boy to kill." She bit off each word as if it were poisoned. "I hope you are proud of it."  
  
Draci Xi had said nothing, seeing what Neji had done. His own face was absolutely blank, but Neji thought he saw something in the older ninja's cold eyes. He was not sure what it was, but he was sure it cast the moment as important. He knows what I chose, Neji realized. He approves.  
  
When Xi said nothing Tsunade continued. She turned first to her chuunin aides. "Get up!" She barked. "We're leaving. Your student has passed my test Draci Xi, you can have him for good now, and may take him on your mission." Her tone softened, but only marginally. "Hyuuga Neji." She said with utmost seriousness, her expression every bit that of a Hokage. "You will become a dragon ninja now, but recall that you are still a ninja of the Leaf. Konoha is your home, and it is whom you serve. This man, though he may be your sensei, is not your master. Know also that if it ever comes to war between Leaf and Lightning, you two dragon ninja will likely face each other on the field of battle. Now, we are done here. You will both report to me when your mission is done." She walked past them and back toward Konoha, chuunins following. Tsunade's face was grave, and her heart troubled, but she was the Hokage, and it was her burden to order these most dangerous weapons of the ninja to be unleashed.  
  
Neji let out a breath he discovered he'd been holding since taking his step back, and watched her go in silence. Xi did not break the moment, letting the three ninja disappear below the hill before speaking. "You have mastered rend, good." He said dryly, though Neji was sure the tone was at least partly forced. "It means I'll have to decide what to teach you next, however, the key first step has been taken. Even with your Byakugan as a crutch, you have greatly improved your ability to control and shape your chakra. Your little demonstration of making the move as artistic as possible here proves that. All other moves build on the same principle, though their details are more complex. Regardless, we have a mission." Xi said with rigor. "But there is one last thing to do before then."  
  
"And that is?" Neji asked, equally focused.  
  
The dragon ninja reached behind in his flak jacket and pulled out the multicolored scroll. He tossed it to Neji. "You must sign your name on that scroll, and leave the Hyuuga name behind."  
  
Holding the scroll, Neji felt the power in it. It seemed to shimmer, as if its presence went beyond its simple physical form. With care he removed the dragon sealing band, and opened the scroll. The weight of those names, written in the blood of dozens of ninja from hundreds of years crashed down on Neji. With this, I will join that fellowship. Though he had been raised with pride as a Hyuuga, somehow this seemed a far more ancient and potent arrangement. These ninja lived and died as the path the chose, dragon ninja, not something they were born to. The names crept left, filing the small columns of squares in dark red script. The last box before the squares continued empty was filled with a single character. Xi. So my name goes in the box below, Neji saw. It was the third box from the bottom of the row.  
  
"Bite your left index finger, and use the blood to write the character." Xi instructed.  
  
Neji bit down gently, tasting the metallic tinge of blood. He moved his finger to the scroll carefully, making sure none got in other boxes. With quick and sure motions, so that the blood did not clot, he marked the square. Neji.  
  
The blood turned instantly dry and dark when he lifted his finger away, as if the paper had drunk it up. The cut on Neji's finger closed instantly.  
  
"Seal the scroll once more, and then give it back to me." Xi told Neji, who did as he asked in silence, contemplating what had just happened. As Xi took the scroll back from Neji he gripped tightly, and then quickly secreted it beneath his flak jacket. "The scroll will pass to you in time." Xi said, and he smiled, the first true smile Neji had seen on the man yet. It was a soft motion that changed his mouth only a little, but relaxed the rest of his face, letting the harshness of his grim image fade away, an action obviously only rarely taken by this man. "Draci Neji."  
  
Draci Neji? The name felt surprisingly right to Neji, who had not expected that feeling. He found suddenly that he did not think of himself so much as a Hyuuga anymore, though that still dominated his thoughts, the cursed seal on his forehead did not immediately enter his mind when he pictured himself. Instead, he caught a shadowy glimpse of a serpentine form behind him.  
  
Xi pulled him from his thoughts. "We will embark on the mission later today, after provisioning. For now though, it is time you learned how to summon a dragon." Neji's face went instantly blank and studious. Xi continued. "It is not particularly complicated, being built on the same principle as other summon techniques. However, the seals are slightly different than those you may be familiar with. They are: Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle." As Xi said the seals his hands moved through the motion of them. Neji watched, and noted that he was indeed unfamiliar with many of these seals; they were different from those used for normal ninjutsu techniques, but not any more complex. "When you complete these seals you prick your index finger, not the thumb as is done for many summon techniques, and place your hands on the ground in front of you in the summoning form." Xi mimed the form, one hand placed atop the other, with fingers of both spread. "It is that simple, at least, to simply summon a dragon. However, if you do the summoning that way, you incur the debt to whichever dragon you summon. You can avoid this by calling in a debt, either to the dragons in general or to a specific dragon you done a service for. To these summonings you add 'a debt I call' or 'I call in a debt owed to me' when you perform the final seal."  
  
Xi walked over to an open area. "I will demonstrate the dragon summoning for your sake, but you incur the debt to me because of it, Neji." Xi told him. "Expect to spend a good deal of your time in the next few years incurring debts, until you gain the power to pay them back. Do not worry about it overmuch, I think you will garner great debts in your day." Xi motioned for Neji to stand back. "When you summon a dragon you must be prepared. They will stare at you with a dragon's eye, as I did, though with far less malice than when intended to attack. Still, you must be ready. Know also that you must not move until you have agreed on the service the dragon is to render, or they are within their rights to attack you."  
  
"How do I get a dragon to owe a debt to me?" Neji asked. "If summoning one implies a debt on my part."  
  
"Simple." Xi replied. "You ask them before they return. Now stay back, and do not move. There are many varieties of dragon, from the infant Yu Lung, little more than vessels to borrow chakra from in need, to the mightiest T'ien Lung dragon lord. The one I am to summon is Sirachi, a shen lung, a messenger, courtier, and bodyguard among dragons."  
  
Xi's hands flashed through the hand seals of the summoning, and Neji felt a great deal of chakra gather in the man. He bit his finger with a snap-quick move, and slammed his hands to the ground. Seals and symbols crawled out into the dirt as he placed them down with a shout. "Dragon summoning no jutsu!"  
  
Air, leaves, and dust blasted and whipped about the training ground, and Neji closed his eyes just as Xi did, unable to see through that flash of noise and energy.  
  
Then all was calm again.  
  
Neji opened his eyes to observe Xi standing stock still, facing...facing...facing a creature from legend. The dragon must have been fifteen feet long if he uncurled fully, a breathtaking serpentine form that shimmered in many colors of scales from red to green to blue. His legs were blood red and adorned with claws sharper than the sharpest steel. His back had a great blue fin upon it, rather like the dorsal fin or a fish, but it vibrated with energy and highlighted the coiled musculature of incredible form beneath. These features were things Neji noted only gaspingly though, for his gaze was locked upon the head. Majestic, no imperial. He tried to categorize what he thought of that great head, with teeth as sharp as razors, the great whiskers rolled down from above the crocodilian jaws, showing the age and wisdom of the dragon. Then there were the eyes. They were yellow, not red, and focused on Xi, but they bored into Neji all the same. He saw something deeper than human there, something that belonged to a world beyond this one, a world of gods and spirits, where the greatest heroes barely glimpsed. An aged glance form a mind beyond human ken, a mind that saw the world with a greater scope and vision than even the Byakugan could possibly offer. Of course we are indebted to summon such as these, Neji realized with a flash. A great mercy that they will serve us at all, the dragons.  
  
"All honor to thee Shen-Lung Sirachi." Xi intoned with solemn seriousness.  
  
Neji saw Sirachi give Xi the slightest nod in return, and he wondered upon it. This creature is familiar with him. "You have summoned me Draci Xi, and incurred a debt from me, what task requires my aid?"  
  
"Nothing in this world honored Sirachi." Xi replied, his tone the same, with respectfulness far beyond that he had given Tsunade. "I would have you look upon my student, Draci Neji, and tell your relatives that another dragon ninja now walks the world."  
  
"Yes, all felt the signing of the scroll." Sirachi replied, his voice deep, inhuman. His tones were partly reptilian, and partly different. There was an ancient presence behind those words, as those of a great wind. The Shen Lung turned to look at Neji.  
  
The eyes bored into him, and with them came a terror. The otherworldliness of the dragon when examined so closely was too much, and Neji felt the fear flowing into him. Yet, as before, he felt the chakra flow within himself, and recognized that not all of his body was afraid. He almost instantly began to realign the flow within him, and the fear ebbed and faded.  
  
Sirachi saw this and smiled, a great toothy expression accompanied by the motion of his mighty tongue. "I recognize you, ninja. You are a quick youth, and strong. You bear the marks of the Byakugan, the fateful power of all-perception, and the scars of one who has found his focus." His head turned back to Xi. "You have chosen well Draci Xi, I will carry word to my relatives, and warn the aged ones that they may indeed be summoned once again."  
  
Xi bowed his head. "Go then, old ally."  
  
The Shen Lung disappeared in a flash of light.  
  
Xi sat down for a moment. "It is always a challenge to do that." He muttered. Turning to Neji, he said. "Now, for you. We will see what you are capable of. Dragon summoning is not something to be practiced like other summonings. So, we will take this opportunity to learn just how powerful a dragon you might summon. Then in battle you will know the limit of what you can hope to summon. The first dragon you call is likely to be one you call often. Sirachi was the first dragon I summoned. He is fast, clever, and solid in a fight when needed. It was he who carried you back to Konoha when I found you collapsed fighting the Sound."  
  
That dragon was the one? Neji remembered the shen lung. Such a great creature carried me back all broken, and then said Xi had chosen well. What does it mean? I will not allow his words to be wrong! Neji swore to himself, a promise to increase his strength like the one he had made to embrace his strength and be the strongest Hyuuga.  
  
"Gather all your chakra Neji, everything you can pull together, and release it all with the summoning. The dragon will try to bore into you, but fight the eye off and do not move. Ask only for the name of the one you have summoned, and offer to do him a favor should he wish it. Then dismiss him. Be respectful, but do not bow down overly. Politeness is the rule, but in this world dragon and ninja stand on equal ground." Xi grimaced as he was done. "I am confident you will do this." He gave Neji one of his half- smiles.  
  
The new dragon ninja did not hesitate. He felt the chakra circulating in him, his strength, and his essence as a ninja. He felt the flow of the tenkentsu. He grasped that flow firmly now, and pulled. Grabbing and channeling the river of his essence, every ounce of strength he could manage. His hands moved with absolute concentration, following the hand seals: "Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, Circle!" He brought his left hand up and bit down carefully, then slammed his hands down with all his strength, releasing the chakra with enough force to push a circle of dirt almost an inch downward. "Dragon Summoning no Jutsu!" Neji cried the words, his voice hoarse with the strain, but loud and confident. Sigils, signs, and runes spread out from where he had crushed the ground, as the blast of chakra took on a form and fury.  
  
A whirlwind of air and force blew Neji back with tremendous power, and even Xi almost fell. The air swirled and shifted, as winds scourged the ground and wrung moisture from the air. The sound of it was as a burning storm, the sun whipping the dust across the open plains, the earth made subservient to the sky.  
  
As suddenly as the fury had appeared, there was silence. Neji and Xi opened their eyes.  
  
Baleful red eyes, with their red upon red double irises stared into Neji. They reached into him, and laid him open. He felt fear, a mind numbing terror that reached all through his body, laying into all but the very core of him. Yet that very core held, something Neji knew could not fall. His mind held the unbreakable image of Uzemaki Naruto, staring at Neji with anger in his eyes and a clenched fist, "I will win!" he stated, and by shear will he made it so. Neji knew that he would not be conquered. He was himself, and nothing could set into all of him. He took that fear, and though he could not deflect the gaze, he channeled it throughout his body, dumping it into unfeeling places, taking out through his chakra holes and ridding himself of it entirely.  
  
It took an eternity, and all Neji could do was force himself to focus and not slid down in the river of fear that gaze offered. He held himself firm, his pupil-less eyes staring back into those brilliant red ones. I will not lose to you, dragon or no! I am Neji, and I have a purpose beyond this!  
  
Slowly that fear left him, but that piercing gaze did not, it had seen into Neji, and weighed him, and even as he struggled to rid himself of the fear he wondered what he had seen.  
  
For Draci Xi, the summoning was beyond his imagination. He had taken one look at the brilliant golden form, eighteen feet in length, with a bright mane of many colors, blaring bright whiskers above the nostrils, those red on red eyes, and the bearded mouth that held teeth to rip even the armor of dragon scales, and had collapsed to his knees. A T'ien Lung! A dragon lord! Masters of the dragons and servants of the gods themselves, the T'ien Lung were the most potent of the dragon races, the celestial dragons, and lords of the skies. Xi himself could summon them, but did so only at the greatest need, for they were masters, not servants, and gave little respect to mortals. That Neji had summoned this dragon on his first time was portentous. It is not just the power, this T'ien Lung is young, and he could have called an older dragon from another race with the same amount of chakra. There is something at work here; the destinies of dragon ninja are in some way linked to those they first summon. Was I right about you Neji? Xi hardly dared to wonder. Are you to be the one who leads the dragon ninja to their rebirth?  
  
Neji took in the dragon slowly, trying to categorize the creature, trying to make sense of this great golden being before him, this creature that surely knew all his secrets now. He considered many things, and only barely remembered what Xi had told him, I must ask only the name. "Who are you, honored one?" Draci Neji asked, forcing the words to be level, to not be timid.  
  
"I am Wusashu, T'ien Lung, The Wind that Flows Beneath Leaves is my title." The dragon's head shifted, and he spun in midair. "You are the first to have summoned me, Draci Neji. I am pleased by this, for I have wished to see the mortal world. You have strong eyes for a human. I deem this bodes well. Now, why have you summoned me?" The voice of Wusashu was deep, and contained endless levels, like the wind. It surged with great force, but there was no malice to the dragon, only its overwhelming presence.  
  
Neji gathered his strength of will. I must answer. "I offer to do you a favor, should you wish it, honored T'ien Lung, Wusashu." He mimicked the forms Xi had used.  
  
"A favor?" The dragon curled back in the air, moving his face away from Neji's. "There are many favors I could ask of you, youth who has become a dragon ninja only this very day." The dragon appeared to consider, raising a clawed leg beneath his jaws. "Perhaps I shall test your competence. You are going to the Hidden Village of Waterfall. There is a ninja there named Ryukin who stole a gem that does not belong to him. Take the gem back, and return it to me as a favor, and as proof that you are fit to summon me."  
  
"As you wish." Neji replied, agreeing without even thinking about the task, feeling he had no other choice. "You may go honored Wusashu."  
  
"Yes, I shall leave, you give me much to think on human." Wusashu said imperiously. "Know that I will be watching you human, for there is something about you that intrigues me." With that the dragon was gone in a whirling flash of wind.  
  
Xi looked over at Neji, watching the withdrawal come over him with an inner chuckle. Not bad Neji, not bad at all. Xi did not even notice that he had begun to think of the young ninja as Neji once he had signed the scroll, or call him that. He had intended to do so all along, and had slipped into it flawlessly with the dramatic change. You handled that well. That much was satisfying, but Wusashu's words were troubling. There is something going on among the dragons for this to happen. Turmoil in that world reflects turmoil here. The Akatsuki have all the Shinobi countries poised on the edge. While I am sure the key is the boy Uzemaki Naruto, there is something important for us to do as well. Good, Xi decided, I'd rather not just be an accessory. Yet how much do I tell him? He was uncertain.  
  
"Impressive Neji." Xi told him, and picked the youth up, steadying him on his feet. "It will become easier with time. I was not expecting you to summon such a dragon; you have a gift for this it seems. I caution that this task Wusashu has given you will not be easy, especially as I cannot aid you beyond the mission from Konoha, but I believe you will succeed." Xi paused. "You look tired. Let's go down and get something to eat, looking a dragon in the eye saps your strength like nothing else. Then we can gather our provisions and depart this afternoon."  
  
"Ah," Neji nodded. "Ah." He said again. "That would be best." 


	8. Dragons Beneath Spray

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Ah, sweet glorious mission, freedom from writing within the stifling confines of Konoha. Nevertheless, there's not really any action in this chapter, but you get to see Xi and Neji work together a bit. I focused on examining Neji here, and tried to show more of Xi's skills as opposed to just his combat abilities, since there's more to being a ninja than simply combat. Major action to follow this chapter.  
  
Dragons Beneath Spray  
  
The Northeastern portion of the Fire country is a more rugged place than much of the land controlled by the Hidden Leaf. It is a place of shallow hills that roll and wind, covered with verdant vegetation. Directly to the north these hills become greater and sharper sets of ravines as the mighty outflow from the mountainous country of Earth flows down to the sea. It is that land of savage hills and ravines that holds the Waterfall country. Ninja have bred there, in the times since the ending of the great ninja world wars. The Village was young, having not existed longer than the lifetime of the 3rd Hokage, and having yet to produce a ninja who would rise to the Kage level. Yet Waterfall was not weak. The ninja bred in those costal hills were tough and innovative, combining the earth jutsus they had inherited from the original founders with their own new water techniques, to create the dangerous and creative waterfall style, a style that mixed two elements. They had sent twelve genin to the chuunin exam, and while none had passed the second stage, they had performed better than the Rain ninja who had come in greater numbers.  
  
Xi had marked several of these genin as promising. Hidden Waterfall is growing stronger, even as Rain and Grass become stagnant, he knew. They have decided to challenge the Leaf now. That is very dangerous. Waterfall is closely aligned with Stone, who now hold the balance of power. Should those two villages join forces they could easily annex much of the Fire Country and the Leaf would not have the strength to oppose them. Xi had resolved that there would need to be violence. If we can force the Waterfall to retreat with wounds very well, especially if Neji can show his strength, but one of them will need to die, or the point will not be learned. It was a hard resolution, but Xi was certain it was necessary. He hoped to perform the mission quickly, get in, locate the enemy, engage them, and then leave. No reason to allow them to bring reinforcements. A single battle should be all that's required.  
  
As they walked through Fire Country, approaching the site where the engagement had taken place; Xi took occasional glances at Neji. He still wondered whether the boy was ready for this mission. It was just important that he fight as Xi. Both for him, and for the Leaf. And there is this mission from that Wusashu; I wonder how that will become involved in this? It almost certainly will. The missions of dragons could not be idly ignored; fate would bring them to a dragon ninja. Usually at the most unpleasant of times too, Xi recalled sardonically.  
  
They journeyed quietly for a day and a half, making camp with little discussion beyond the simple necessities of working together. Xi was not used to having companions and had little to say. Neji was similarly quiet, and mulling over things himself. He practiced his strangely modified version of rend that evening, with some of his chakra recovered after summoning Wusashu. It drained his energy greatly. Xi saw the move with amazement, to blow something to pieces with such an effect was astounding, and he had the feeling Neji was only scraping the surface of what he had discovered.  
  
I'm not satisfied. Neji decided after he slumped over, the second log lying broken to shards beneath him. This move, I need to make it more efficient, it's using too much chakra. He didn't have the strength to do any more though, and Xi told him to stop.  
  
"Store up your strength Neji." He advised. "We will need it in battle soon enough." The older ninja had done nothing but go through exercises to keep his muscles ready and did not tax his stamina.  
  
He rarely did anything else, at least not where Neji could see. Does he practice his jutsus? Neji wondered, he never saw Xi doing so, not in all the two months they had trained together. The other ninja had practiced Taijutsu extensively, and had done exercises where he channeled chakra throughout his body, shaping and controlling it in strange fashions, but never a full jutsu. Of course, he only knows twenty-six jutsus; perhaps he has mastered them enough to not need practice with them.  
  
They passed the night easily, camping in the open ground. The next day they departed the road and began to travel with some speed. "We will likely reach the initial battle site at the end of today if we push some. The incursion traveled some distance into the Fire country, farther than any normal probe, but Konoha cannot spare the ANBU to patrol anymore. They suffered the greatest casualties during the attack. I expect our opponents have fallen back toward the border since the engagement though."  
  
"What are we facing?" Neji asked Xi, seeking for details that had been mostly withheld.  
  
"Ah," Xi shook his head. "I probably should have told you earlier. As a spy I was not much for sharing information. Our opponents are a single team, apparently quite talented. Three are chuunin, and one a jounin. They will be skilled opponents, true chuunin, not like the Sound who attacked Konoha." Those Sound were weaklings, almost like genin in many ways, Xi remembered. These will be more dangerous. They will be my first skilled ninja opponents in some time. "The report says little about their techniques, since the ones used by Waterfall are little known by the Leaf. Still, it is possible that one of them, probably the Jounin, has a bloodline limit ability."  
  
Neji took notice of that. I've never fought anyone with a bloodline limit. Still, it can't be more dangerous than those cursed seal powers? Can it? "What should I expect?" He asked Xi, seeking to pry more information.  
  
"I can only speculate, I have not fought a Waterfall ninja in five years, and the lesser villages change rapidly." Xi replied carefully. "Have you fought Waterfall ninja, Neji?"  
  
"No." Neji replied. "There were some during the chuunin exam." He confirmed. "I saw them from afar, but we took our scroll from a team of Grass ninja."  
  
"Well then," Xi said. "I can tell you a little. Waterfall ninja use both earth element and water element jutsus, as well as techniques that combine the two. While still in Leaf territory they will likely stay away from Water jutsus, but don't be too sure. When battle comes I will fight the jounin, and as many others as necessary or close at hand. You will have to deal with a least one chuunin."  
  
"I will do that." Neji said, not worried about it. I am strong enough to fight against anyone, I may not be as strong as I thought, but I did beat Kidomaru, and I have heard how powerful he was. His mouth set grim. "I can do whatever is necessary."  
  
"Certainly." Xi betrayed no lack of confidence in Neji. "But realize that these are battle tested ninja, possibly ANBU acting unofficially, they will not have the power to match Kidomaru, but they will have much greater battle skill and tactics. That is your weakest area Neji." Xi said frankly, wanting to make sure his words were heard. "As the fight prolongs the likelihood of you being tricked increases. Experience will change that, but for now, remember that you are a dragon ninja, strike quickly and to kill. I am certain you will likely overpower your opponents."  
  
Tactics my weakest area? Neji did not like to hear those words. They rang true with a sharpness he found biting at the back of his mind. He had gone over the fight with Naruto endless times in his mind, tracing what had happened again and again. I had been so confident I could see everything, that I knew what would happen before it would begin. That got me. It had been true against Kidomaru as well, though Neji had adapted better and managed to trick his opponent in the end. But if not for that trick, he would have picked apart my defense and outwitted me. Even doing that, I would have died if Xi had not saved me. In all the long hours in the hospital Neji had considered what he might do to change the fortunes of such battles.  
  
It had been hard. He had fought few fights with those who equaled him. Only Naruto and Kidomaru were opponents that had matched him. Even Lee, for all his attempted attacks, had never had the power to seriously threaten Neji. Neji had always thought that was because Lee was a dropout, relying only on Taijutsu. Now, having been beaten by Xi with similar methods, he saw that it had mostly been the moves Lee used. The Jyouken style was derived from the Gouten, which was therefore the absolutely weakest way to fight against it. Lee was severely handicapped even using that method of Taijutsu. Xi's Jinnen fighting style was more dangerous; its ultra-rapid attacks more likely to chance upon a way to overwhelm his vision and react faster than the Byakugan. Neji had been taught that lesson by Xi, and he had to acknowledge that Taijutsu, even if unlikely, could threaten him. Neji had gone over the battles with Naruto and Kidomaru hundreds of times; trying to find ways they could have been changed. He had determined many things of importance.  
  
I underestimated Naruto. That had been the chief lesson of that battle, not to underestimate an opponent. Neji had taken that to heart, had realized that maybe he couldn't see everything, that there wasn't an ultimate fate behind it all. That was essential for me to defeat Kidomaru, to keep fighting against him. There had been other lessons from that fight as well. Neji had recognized something else about that battle, though it had been almost the last thing he saw. Something so simple, and yet he had ignored it for so long. I hit every one of Naruto's tenkentsu, he knew. But after that I simply told him to give up. It had taken him long hours of going over that incident while staring at the white walls to recognize a simple fact. If I had walked over while he was lying on the ground and put a kunai to his throat I would have won. Instead, I gave him every possible chance to alter the outcome. He had looked back at other fights and discovered he did the same thing, against Hinata, against Lee so many times, against even Tenten. I would always allow my opponents every chance, to make their defeat greater and to drive in the difference. It had taken Neji forever to see that, because he had deceived himself so completely, and because the Hyuuga in him refused to believe it, thought it shouldn't matter. People determine fights, their fates, not circumstances. It had been terribly hard to learn differently. Thankfully, Kidomaru and Xi had taught him the other half of the lesson. The victor is determined only by defeating the enemy. All his talking and demonstrations proved nothing, and were a waste. It was a terribly sobering thing to learn, and even harder to apply, but Neji resolved he would not forget that.  
  
Strike quickly and to kill, Xi had told him. Ah, Neji decided. That's right, I'll remember to do that. If you kill them, they can't come back to strike at you.  
  
The long day of walking passed in silence, as the two dragon ninja covered many miles to traveling northwest. They passed through many of the lush forests of the leaf, and also passed by many villages, towns, and the other outposts of the leaf country, though they instinctively avoided them. The country gradually grew more rugged and hilly as they went. Villages became less common. Xi remarked on this, in a rare moment of speech. "Supposedly all portions of a Shinobi country are equally safe, but the truth is revealed in how people cluster in the central areas, as near to the hidden villages as possible. Hmph." He grunted. "In a border area like this there won't be many people, and those who do live here will switch their loyalties quickly."  
  
"Do the boundaries change that often?" Neji asked. He had rarely gone far from Konoha while fulfilling his teams C and D rank missions, and so knew little of the greater world.  
  
"Ah." Xi said quietly. "Often enough. You are young, a child of the age of peace. War is still common. There was war between Stone and Grass only seven years ago. A quiet war, but shinobi from both countries tried to infiltrate across Leaf land. The Leaf village was strong then, so they rarely succeeded." Xi hesitated for a moment, and then continued in a much lower and quieter voice. "Listen well Neji. The peace of the past ten years is only partly due to Konoha's influence and treaties. There has been peace because the greatest ninja of the land have decided to stand aside. The mightiest s-level criminals, each capable of making the Kage level, have stood aside from starting wars to pursue some other plan. That is really what has held the peace, and now, they may be trying to break it. Think on that."  
  
Another long period of silence followed those remarks, and they traveled without further discussion late into the day.  
  
As the sun set over the mountains of Stone Country in the west Xi seemed to look about, and he indicated a change in direction. Neji didn't know what had indicated to the ninja which way to go, he hadn't consulted a map or any other reference. Landmarks perhaps, he decided, but can he know this land so well? It was a frightening thought. For his part, Neji had settled for determining landmarks throughout the day, and ingrained tactic, one of the few aspects of Gai's training that had stuck with him. In case everything breaks apart, I will recognize the way back.  
  
As the last glimmers of sunset fainted over the horizon, in the twilight between day and night, Xi took to the trees. Neji follow the sudden motion, expecting some explanation, but Xi did not stop. He zipped back and forth between the branches for several moments, and then took of in a single direction, motioning silently for Neji to follow. The younger ninja did so easily, despite the general difficulties of tree walking in such shadowy light. Don't think my intrusion skills are weak, Draci Xi. Neji grimaced.  
  
With another sudden transition, made with incredible speed and a sharp angle few ninja could match due to Xi's brilliant chakra use. Damn, Neji thought, I can't match that move. Still, I won't be shown up like that. He channeled his own chakra, forcing it into his left leg while still maintaining the normal pace with his right, to make a hard right motion. It was a difficult technique, the feet are less open to channeling of chakra than many parts of the body, and the speed involved required both timing real events and the chakra channeling. Precision, huh? Neji growled. It always comes back to that it appears.  
  
Neji could not quite match the line Xi had charted, but he found his chakra flowed quick and fasted than he was used to. What? I didn't think I could do this. He almost spun too far to the right by overcompensating, but discovered it was all somehow easier than before. Is this the result of learning Rend? He wondered. It was both exhilarating and frightening to think that. Regardless, Neji discovered he had greater chakra control than before, and he marked it well.  
  
Xi stood steady on the ground when Neji reached him. He made no comment on the moves he had just used. Did he even consider that I could not match him? Neji wondered. There was no sure answer. Xi was not a teacher, not used to compensating for students. He may have just acted normally, not even remembering Neji's capabilities. That could be very dangerous. Neji worried, but I will match any expectations you have, Xi. He thought with icy sharpness.  
  
It was only then that Neji noticed something different about this spot of forest. There was a battle here, he saw. Blood stained the ground in places, and broken branches and leaves were strewn about. Marks were present on several of the trees as well, from shuriken hits, though the actual weapons had been removed. Xi walked about the area in slow circles, looking this way and that, thinking in silence. When all light was basically gone, he leaned against a tree. "This was a one-sided affair." He told Neji.  
  
Neji looked at Xi in shock. He had not been able to determine anything of the kind. "What makes you say that?"  
  
"There are a few different styles to the weapon marks, and I can associate them either with Konoha or Waterfall." The older ninja responded. "The Waterfall ninja fell upon the Leaf ninja without warning. They wounded two in the opening attack. Defensive jutsus were used; there are burn marks on the eastern side. The Waterfall ninja attacked with the rising sun at their backs. That was followed by an exchange of thrown weapons, and possibly some aerial combos. No damage was inflicted with either. Then a jutsu was used that severely injured one of Konoha's ninja, the largest blood spot corresponds with an unusual damage mark on several trees. I don't recognize what it was. Then the Leaf ninja used a genjutsu and escaped."  
  
To read all that from one battle scene? Neji was shocked. So that's what it means to have been an ANBU and Hunter-nin. His respect for Xi increased another margin. Xi raised an eyebrow at Neji. "Surprised? I've seen countless marks from battles. You learn to read them in time. In the morning you can take some time to try and chart what happened here. For now we can move a hundred meters west and make camp in the trees. I expect that we will be fighting tomorrow. Time you learned how to make a front line camp." Xi turned and motioned for Neji to follow.  
  
Battle tomorrow? Neji wondered. The site of the battlefield reminded him that this was deadly serious. It caused a cold feeling deep within. This was deadly serious business, and there was no adrenaline pounding in his veins to mask that. I could die tomorrow, he thought suddenly. Then he gritted his teeth. Irrelevant. He determined. I will fight and complete this mission. I am a dragon ninja. This won't deter me. Fear drowned beneath the tremendous force of Neji's will, he turned and followed Xi to camp. 


	9. Sunder and Claw

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And let the action begin! That's the big focus of this chapter, battle with Hidden Waterfall. I should note, this chapter justifies the PG-13 rating I originally gave this piece. The reason is basically: Dragon Jutsus+Human targets=big mess. Anyway, I hope this goes over well, I got to create a number of new jutsus for the waterfall ninja, which I think work quite well. The battle in this chapter alternates between Xi's fight and Neji's at intervals, much as multiple fights have proceeded in the anime and manga. I hope that goes over well. I have switched over to putting spaces between every paragraph since Fanfiction.net has apparently decided to stop honoring my indents. Eventually I'll go back and change the others too.  
  
Thanks to those who took the time to review!  
  
Sunder and Claw  
  
Morning, a dark and overcast morning that calls the ninja awake at dawn in spite of itself. Cold creeps over the land this day, for it is now fall. In the tree branches the two dragon ninja awaken in silence. There is little light yet, and it is difficult to see. They are cold, having slept battle ready. The cold dew clings to them, and seems to tug the mind back toward sleep.  
  
Xi is instantly upright, his form jerking into sudden motion. In seconds he has stuffed his bedroll away and dropped to the forest floor. He assessed the danger silently, and finding nothing, relaxed. Without saying anything, or even bothering to look at the branch Neji occupies Xi began a series of morning exercises to loosen his stiffened limbs and work the blood back through his body.  
  
It took Neji somewhat more time to accomplish this. He came awake quickly, and moved slowly into the motions of breaking his likewise simple camp. This takes a few moments. I thought I was quick at this, Neji thought reflecting on the strenuous survival training Gai often put the team through. Xi moves like he never wakes up any other way. Perhaps he doesn't, Neji considered. The Dragon Ninja had never mentioned living anywhere specific in Konoha. Has he camped continuously for the past eight years? It was a troubling question, another of the many mysteries surrounding Draci Xi that seemed without answer.  
  
The two ninja silently went through the procedures of the morning, and when they were loose and ready paused to eat a cold breakfast, purchased at a nameless village early yesterday. It was only during the meal that Xi spoke to Neji. "Reasonably quick in the morning, but you must become faster. If an attack comes at night you must move quickly enough to preserve your gear and escape, if you are driven off without it you've already lost any lengthy pursuit."  
  
Such a harsh mentality, mindful of every detail and possibility. "Where does such a thing matter?" Neji asked, somewhat contemptuous of Xi's zealousness for such a simple thing.  
  
The answer was a single word. "War."  
  
Neji fell silent again.  
  
Breakfast, being cold and tasteless, was a quick affair. Neji and Xi then departed, walking back to the battle site. "There's more light now." Xi told him. "Examine this, and see what you can see."  
  
It was a simple enough thing to do. Neji walked around the area a few times, marking out suriken damage, blood spots, and the marks of jutsu impacts. Examining them he began to catch some of things Xi had mentioned. There were indeed two different styles of attacks evident from the shuriken marks. He could also mark out that some strange jutsu had been used to inflict a horrid wound. It was something. Neji decided. I will need to do this for every battle from now on, he told himself. So that I master this technique.  
  
"Alright, let's go." Xi ordered. "We'll proceed generally northwest, toward the Waterfall border. Stick to the trees and stay within sight of me. Look for any marks that indicate a ninja presence. Don't concern yourself with stealth, if the enemy finds us that's fine, as long as there's warning." Xi jumped into the trees, and Neji followed. "I will moderate my pace to match yours while searching." He said. "Once we contact the enemy, however, I will launch ahead of you. There may be no warning beyond that, so follow as best you can."  
  
The next few hours were spent in searching for signs of the Waterfall ninja. The team was quite elusive, and Xi said as much after a time, when the pair had proceeded northwest a great distance. There were few marks to indicate anyone had been through this area, and nothing definitive. They went back and forth, rapidly covering a tremendous amount of ground, taking only occasional breaks to prevent depleting their stamina. Xi pushed hard, and Neji found it difficult to keep up with the older ninja at times. He had trouble searching while moving at such a quick pace, but was confident that if there were anything to see he would catch it. My eyes are sharp enough.  
  
It was just before noon when Xi spotted the signal he needed. There! He stopped abruptly, forcing Neji to stop hard enough to feel a good deal of pain from the impact to avoid flying past the older ninja. "See that tree Neji." Xi pointed to a large one off to the left.  
  
Neji looked at it carefully, wondering what Xi had seen. There's something strange about the bark, he noticed immediately. It's been scored somehow, as if it were blasted off with some great force. "What happened to it?" He asked.  
  
"A Water jutsu of some kind was used on the bark, rubbing it off like sandpaper." Xi responded, "And from the north side."  
  
Looking again, Neji saw how it was, the marks of water damage to the bark, as if a firehose had been used on it. There was no decay to it. "It must have been done recently." Neji supplied.  
  
Xi nodded. "With a day almost certainly, decay sets in fast in this moist forest. I believe our quarry is north of us. If this was done yesterday they are probably not far from here, but are scouting this area. There is a small village nearby. They may be examining it. We'll head that way." Xi determined.  
  
"How close do you estimate?" Neji asked very seriously. "Within a few miles?"  
  
"Why should that matter?" Xi said irritably, then his head spun toward Neji and he bored into him. "Byakugan?" It was not a question.  
  
"Ah." Neji answered.  
  
"Do it."  
  
Neji focused in, though the move was essentially automatic by now, using the Byakugan this way was slightly different from other methods. "Byakugan." He spoke the word quietly. His vision telescoped, seeing everything for a great distance, though with so many trees it would be difficult to sort out anything beyond clear movement. He knew he shouldn't have any problems in this area, but his detection abilities were less than perfect. Damn cursed seal! This was one area Neji knew it had affected his powers. Still, have to see. He looked, focusing till his eyes burned with the pain, but not catching anything as he swept the perspective to the north. Maybe there isn't anything...wait! I saw something. Then it passed in front of his vision once more, a streak of motion above the ground. Too large for a bird. It must be a ninja! "There to the north." Neji said, the words coming out roughly. He let the Byakugan go, and his eyes felt instantly better. He pointed the direction, and saw Xi follow his hand.  
  
"Not the direction I expected." The other ninja muttered. "Well, fine, we'll head the way, and confirm it later. Keep your senses sharp to hear anything or sense nearby chakra." He dashed forward through the trees.  
  
The land blitzed past with incredible velocity under the two ninja. This was pursuit speed, and tremendous at that. Neji had only moved this fast once before, when chasing after the Sound ninja and Sasuke. And with that he could easily tell that Xi could have gone much faster. The dragon ninja continued to impress him.  
  
Time dilated for the two as they moved, with the ground nothing but a blur beneath them. They were fully extending their senses, minds working on two levels, one the blistering speed through the trees, and the second the hunt for the foe. Where are the Waterfall ninja? In this haste Neji forgot all fear of the battle to come, and got lost for a moment in the chase.  
  
"There!" Xi called suddenly, picking up something Neji couldn't hear. Then a moment later he noticed it too. The sound of a shuriken slicing apart leaves. They are within a few hundred yards of us! Neji discovered suddenly. Battle begins!  
  
There was no pause in Xi's motion, no obvious shift. His speed simply went from the extremely fast pursuing speed to a careening motion that Neji's eyes could barely track for the second it took him to leave view. He harnessed his chakra and launched himself after the dragon ninja, doing his best to chase the man, but it was clear Xi would be alone with the enemy for several seconds. Neji could only remember the other ninja's instructions. Strike quickly and to kill. I shall, he steadied himself and gathered his chakra, feeling the image of blades of chakra in his mind. I shall do this.  
  


* * *

  
Xi left Neji behind with hardly a thought. He will catch me in a few seconds, he knew. The dragon ninja moved with blistering speed, so fast now that he could barely see far enough ahead to guide him movements. This was the absolute limit of any ninja's treewalking motion, any faster and you simply could not tell where you were going. It was an incredibly dangerous thing to move even this fast, but Xi had estimated the distance, and he was coming in to kill.  
  
The forest opened abruptly, and Xi was already shedding some of his speed. A single glance indicated the four ninja, two in the trees, and two on the ground. Can't get down at this speed, he knew. Xi picked the closer of the two and came at him.  
  
The other ninjas barely had any time to react at all. The eyes of Xi's target went wide beneath his forehead protector. They had heard something, but not expected any attack at this velocity. The man dodged desperately aside.  
  
Foolish, Xi thought. He expected a shuriken attack. The waterfall chuunin had reasoned that few ninja would attack at this speed, since it left them highly open to counterattack. That was somewhat true, but Xi wasn't going to give his opponent a counterattack. The chuunin dodged to the right.  
  
One branch remaining between him and his target and Xi stretched out his hands. He grasped the branch with his chakra, enough force to rip the bark right off, and flipped himself in the correct direction, flying feet first at his opponent.  
  
The Waterfall ninja screamed.  
  
Xi's feet connected with the unfortunate man's body and walked up his chest. As they did Xi released chakra into his legs, forming them similarly to rend. But these were not blades. They were sharp spikes, two at the toes and two at the heels, and long enough to go through a man. "Back rake!" Xi shouted out the move's name as he executed it, leaving a bloody ruin of the chuunin's chest, as if he had been stabbed with a hundred kunai.  
  
The Waterfall ninja gurgled once and then fell to the ground with a limp thud.  
  
Xi landed on the branch beyond, coming to a half-upright posture.  
  
The other ninja were not fools. The two on the ground had pulled shuriken, though they had not yet launched them, but the other in the trees was faster. Even as Xi landed he had sent a trio of shuriken and a kunai at him. They flew like black arrows, and the ninja lept into the air behind them, moving toward Xi.  
  
The dragon ninja was ready. His hands flew to his thighs, and came up wearing nekode. He knocked away the shuriken easily, and leapt into the air as well. That one is the jounin. Xi decided of the ninja who had thrown at him.  
  
The pair collided like thunderbolts, lightning quick blows passed between them, kunai striking nekode, but neither found an opening. They came to rest on opposite branches. Xi turned and stared at the foe with a grim expression.  
  
The Waterfall jounin reacted quickly. "Idiots!" He shouted at the two chuunin below. "Do something!" He and Xi stared at each other for a silent moment.  
  
The Jounin looked at Xi's forehead protector and his eyes widened. "Lightning? The killer!"  
  
Hmm...I've made something of a reputation it seems. Xi noted. What are you going to do jounin?  
  
The man was apparently waiting for the chuunin to act to help him, but Neji chose that moment to appear.  
  
Where Xi had been a streak of blue, Neji was a burst of gray. He led his attack with shuriken, driving the pair apart. The two chuunin looked very similar to chuunin everywhere, non-descript ninja whose only difference was their hair and the placement of bandages. They wore a different uniform than Konoha, a flak jacket that was brown and had larger pockets. And their colors were brown and blue, a rocky pattern. They wore the forehead protectors of Waterfall, marked by twin downward chop marks. One dodged right and the other left. Neji saw their motions with his eyes. The one on the left will throw a kunai, the one to the right intends to fall back and use jutsu.  
  
Normally Neji would have gone after the jutsu user, but he recalled Xi's words. With the Byakugan kunai were no threat to him, so he charged at that man.  
  
A kunai flew, and Neji knocked it away easily, bringing the nekode into his hands. The waterfall ninja tried to dodge, but Neji was too quick, and anticipated his movements with ease. He brought both arms up.  
  
Neji's chakra control was less than perfect at such speeds, and the chuunin was fast enough to spin left, intending to block the attack with his left arm. So Neji could not hit the torso of the man, still the attack struck all the same.  
  
"Rend!" The cry split the clearing, and was followed by a terrible scream of agony. Neji's hands knew those chakra blades well now, and they came down in the crossing pattern of rend, and then back up.  
  
Sharper than any steel these blades of chakra, and they impacted the unfortunate chuunins left arm and kept going. Down through his arm once, crossed, and then back up again. The damage was extreme. Blood splashed everywhere, coating both Neji and the chuunin, and all but ripping the arm straight off.  
  
The chuunin screamed in agony and collapsed to the ground, the limb destroyed and useless. Neji's eyes went wide with shock. Oh, god! He thought as he saw the effect of using the jutsu Xi had taught him. Blood was everywhere, and he had to relax the Byakugan for an instant to blink it away. When he looked again he saw the ruined remnants of the other ninja's arm, and gashes that stretched into his torso. I...I...I did this? It was horrifying. Neji had killed before, but the Jyouken style was essentially bloodless, leaving internal wounds that could not be seen. Here though, here he ruined a man, if not killed him slowly. His mind blanked for a moment.  
  
Thankfully for Neji his Byakugan did not fail, and he caught the flashing motion of the other chuunin going through hand seals. "Waterfall style, Crashing Spray no jutsu!" The other ninja called out. Neji jolted aside as a fierce blast of water and air like that of a great wave meeting the shore burst from the chuunin's mouth, blowing a tremendous gouge into the ground where he had been standing. He was brought instantly back into focus by the attack, even as the other ninja continued to scream on the ground. This battle is just beginning. The other chuunin stood some distance away, and seemed to be ready to attack again.  
  
Above the struggle on the ground Xi and the waterfall jounin faced each other. They had both seen what had happened below. Xi noted Neji's reaction. Damn, well, using Rend is never pleasant. Still, he'd better remain focused. He didn't kill that one yet, and the other looks dangerous. Crashing Spray is a powerful technique, and if he can use it with no obvious water then he's got some talent. Then Xi had to put aside his concern for Neji and deal with his own opponent. Well, it's your move. He thought.  
  
The jounin grimaced at Xi. He was tall, with long limbs, and short spiked hair. He wore a band of cloth between his mouth and eyes, covering the nose. "So, you have a friend. I thought the lightning killer worked alone." He spat. "Never mind, that boy's from Konoha, so you're working for them. I suppose I'll just break you both." He flipped up and backwards, launching into the air.  
  
The jounin went through a series of hands seals, and then brought his right hand forward in a clenched fist. "Sunder!"  
  
Xi leaped aside at the last second. The branch he had been standing on exploded in a watery blast. The water appeared from within the branch itself.  
  
So that's Sunder, huh? The Waterfall within. Xi upgraded his assessment of the jounin. The technique was one of the most feared of Waterfall's, it broke the bonds between water and earth within an object, causing the water to burst out. It could not be used upon living things, but if the ninja sundered something you were standing on the shrapnel would likely result in death. This man can use it with great speed too. Xi noted. I wonder just how much speed?  
  
The dragon ninja dodged aside rapidly, moving in a zigzag pattern, to charge in against his opponent. The man flashed through the hand seals again, and Xi leapt aside as another branch blew apart. Bits of wood impacted against his legs, but didn't penetrate the skin. Too close. Xi thought.  
  
"Ha!" The jounin shouted. "You can't get close to me that way! I can Sunder just as quickly as you can approach. If you tried to attack any faster you'd leave yourself far too open." He laughed.  
  
I know that already you fool! Xi sneered. He leapt up, and flashed his hands through a pattern of seals all his own. The other jounin copied repeated his Sunder motions. Doesn't matter! Xi thought silently, there's nothing you can blow up to block this. Chakra ran down his fingers, gathering at the edge of his fingertips, so much concentrated it brought in intense pain. He circled that chakra into little knots within his body; knots that were unstable and would break once his will stopped holding them. They he shoved the knots out his tenkentsu. "Dragon Wind!" The blast of air shot forth, as knots of chakra broke apart, the power of the dragon's flight to drive an enemy into the ground and break them from the impact. The burst of air flashed at the jounin. Over the shrieking of the air Xi heard the jounin cry out. "Sunder!" The man shouted into the storm.  
  
That shouldn't help you! Xi thought as he descended, looking at where the jounin had stood. For a moment a cloud of dust obscured his position, and then Xi saw the man standing there still, apparently unharmed. What!  
  
"Ha!" He laughed at the dragon ninja. "I can sunder the very air itself! That attack won't work on me!"  
  
Xi gritted his teeth, but then he smiled. So that's it? Time to die then.  
  
"Crashing Spray no Jutsu!"  
  
The blast of water surged toward Neji, and there was no way to dodge this time. Well, fine. "Kaiten!" Water impacted the spin and blasted off into forest. "Useless." Neji told his opponent.  
  
The chuunin wiped a look of surprise off his face. Neji knew the chuunin was in a tight spot. He can't approach close, he saw what I did to his companion, and I can block his jutsu. What will he do now?  
  
The ninja bolted away, and Neji followed. He hurled several shuriken, which Neji blocked easily. Neji caught up to the chuunin with a leap. The angle wasn't good enough to use rend, but he could easily target the man's tenkentsus.  
  
The chuunin took a viscous blow to the shoulder, and he coughed with the pain, but rolled away and came upright. His hands ready to begin the pattern of seals again. "What good will that do?" Neji muttered aloud. "You can't break through."  
  
There was no response beyond "Crashing Spray no jutsu!"  
  
"Kaiten!" The attack was deflected as before. Why? It seems so pointless. Neji wondered, and then he saw behind him.  
  
I made a mistake again. He realized. The vision of the Byakugan revealed that the other chuunin had stood up. Bandages covered with blood blanketed his left arm, but he held a kunai with a deathgrip in his right hand.  
  
"Can't break through?" The chuunin in front of him sneered. "Maybe not, but you'll have to use that spin to block me, and then he catches you when its done. You're done, boy." His hands flashed through hand seals.  
  
Neji had only instants to consider his options. I can't dodge. Kaiten won't work. I might attack him before he gets the spray off, but I'd get struck. For a single instant he hesitated, almost making the same tactical mistakes that had hurt him before. Then he realized it. It doesn't mater if I get struck, I can see the kunai, it'll hit, but nowhere important. I've got to stop this attack.  
  
He charged toward the chuunin.  
  
"Crashing Spray no Jutsu!" The terrible blast of water and air was more powerful than before, a great storm fueled by floodwaters this attack, ready to crush Neji.  
  
"Kaiten!"  
  
The spin and the spray impacted. Water and air and chakra surged and spun, and a kunai left a hand with the desperate strength of the dying.  
  
Draci Xi faced the jounin in the treetops above, and put his nekode back in their holders at his side. He drew forth two kunai from the holster on his left leg. The jounin mocked him. "What are you going to do with those killer? It's useless. I wonder why you're so fearsome, you don't seem that capable to me." He readied Sunder once more. "I'll finish you this time."  
  
Too late. Xi knew. You've already showed me the capabilities of that move. Now I can get around it. A smart ninja never uses the same move twice against one enemy. He placed his right leg forward, raising the kunai in his left hand high and down pointing, and bringing the right hand one level with his hip pointing up.  
  
Xi charged in at full speed. The Sundering blast impacted behind him. "Hidden Cloud style, Thunder and Lightning Strike!"  
  
The dragon ninja moved with incredible rapidity, ahead of the first sunder, and the second that followed him. Too slow.  
  
The jounin's eyes widened as Xi seemed to shift at full speed, appearing above and right, and then to the left. Where is he? I can't follow the movement. It's too fast. Then he caught it, the dragon ninja was coming down from directly above.  
  
"Sunder!" The air exploded above the Waterfall jounin's head.  
  
The Kunai Xi held in his left hand impacted not toward the jounin, but into the air that had been sundered. A tremendous force impacted, and a bursting thunderclap exploded among those trees, canceling it out.  
  
What? He attacked my defense? Why? The Jounin's face became puzzled.  
  
The kunai in Xi's right hand came in with sparking fury, the lightning swift impact taking the jounin in the heart.  
  
The man fell to the ground, a blank look upon his dying face, as his hands grasped fruitlessly at the kunai. "Thunder and Lightning Strike," Xi explained. "A lethal two-pronged attack that functions by impacting the primary attack against the opponent's defense, destroying it. Then, before any new defense can be raised the second attack comes in to kill."  
  
Neji, below, heard the explanation.  
  
The spin had ended with Neji positioned exactly as he wished. The kunai came in and took him in the left arm, a minor wound. Neji spun around, grabbing it with his right hand and sending it back at the dying chuunin. That man, lacking the strength to dodge, took the hit and collapsed, a lung punctured.  
  
There was no hesitation after that. Neji had covered the necessary distance with the other chuunin, and now he attacked. "Gentle Fist!"  
  
The man was quick, and raised his arms to block, only to feel them crumple as blood vessels and muscle was ripped apart within. Neji followed the attack with strikes to the chest, bursting against organs and dropping the man to his knees.  
  
"Gaah!" The chuunin coughed blood. "He managed to move his hands and push chakra past the blocks in his tenkentsu. "Spray shower no jutsu." He croaked out.  
  
A blast of water swirled about them. It did not hurt, but blocked Neji's sight. This was not genjutsu, but actual water, and its whirling chaotic motion made it impossible to track his target, even with the Byakugan. The chuunin had escaped.  
  
Taking a deep breath Neji realized he had won. He looked up to see Xi's attack kill the Jounin above, and heard Xi calmly explain what he had done. For my benefit I'm sure. Neji knew. What a move. He thought of the Thunder and Lightning Strike, an incredible taijutsu move to do that.  
  
Xi descended to stand next to Neji, who felt emotion simply drain out of him with the end of the battle. The dragon ninja said nothing, but walked over to the fallen chuunin who had been struck with Rend.  
  
"Already dead." He said quietly, and bent down to close the eyes. "Not a pleasant way to die." He muttered. "But so are battles between ninja."  
  
Neji nodded silently, and avoided looking at the horribly damaged body, it made him somewhat sick to realize he had done that to another person. That is the work of Dragon Jutsus, he realized fully for the first time.  
  
"Your wound is not serious?" Xi asked.  
  
"No, nothing really." Neji replied honestly, for the wound had only graze him as he spun away from it, what he had achieved by planning to take it.  
  
"Good." Xi said quietly. "One got away. That's fine. You hurt him. We'll track him back to the border, but there should be no need for further engagement." Xi's voice went down a tone. "Patch up that wound of yours. I'll take care of the final task."  
  
"What final task?" Neji asked.  
  
"Disposing of the dead." Xi answered. "Burying them is not something we have the time for, as a Hunter-nin I know what to do, and that is enough for any ninja. If you wish to help then gather brush and branches, we will need them."  
  
It took some time to gather together what Xi needed. He mounted branches brush and dry leaves atop all the bodies after dragging the three ninja together. Xi laid the forehead protector of each man over his closed eyes. He did take scrolls out of the jounin's jacket and placed them in his own, but that was the only thing taken from the Waterfall ninja. "Best not to let such things go up in smoke." He told Neji quietly. The whole process took less than a half hour, and then they were ready.  
  
Xi motioned for Neji to stand back. He said nothing over the bodies. Ninja should be left to silence was the creed. The dragon ninja's hands flashed through a long series of seals at blistering speed, though Neji recognized the ones used in rend repeated several times. Then he raised both hands to his face, thumbs touching, and paired fingers touching as well, forming a sort of channel around his mouth. "Dragon breath no jutsu!" The words came out in a terrifying voice not Xi's own, the voice of a dragon. They were followed by a terrible storm of lightning. It arched and burst and shattered, blinding the eyes and paralyzing the senses. Neji felt every hair on his body stand up and his skin pinching taught just from being nearby.  
  
The blast of electrical power smote the pile of brush mercilessly, and it exploded into flames with cackling popping leaps, as the hungry fires sought to devour the dead. The two dragon ninja watched in silence for a few moments, making sure the flames did not touch the rest of the forest.  
  
It was quick, and in minutes little more than smoldering ashes remained. "Time to go Neji." Xi said coldly, jolting the young genin out of his revere. "We will track the other ninja toward the border. You will take the lead." He did not pause after giving the command. "Be cautious, there may be others in this region, and it would not do to be ambushed."  
  
Neji nodded. Trying to focus past the blood he kept seeing behind his eyes. He leapt into the trees, and seeing signs of a ninja's frantic movement, began to chase again. 


	10. Burning Mirror

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And more action, my first major one on one battle for Neji, and it turned out far better than I originally hoped it would, considering the jutsus I came up with. Hope they are appreciated. Again, some serious violence here, but that's an aspect of this story, coping with what you have to do. Thanks to those who review, and I'll throw in some response comments:  
  
orlha: I wouldn't say this story is that different from the rest of Naruto, though its intended to be. I'm just dealing with more mature characters at a higher level of skill.  
  
Kimirei: I'm glad you appreciate the detail. I sometimes think I go to far with it. But then, I'm a big fan of description, and Naruto to me breaks down into action contrasted with explanation. The real difference here is that Xi basically has to explain all his own techniques, since no one else is either watching or knows what he's doing.  
  
Do As Infinity: Oh, there's much more to come, heck I'm not even really a third of the way through my basic plot outline yet, and everything will take longer once Neji acquires some teammates (about two chapters in the future or so).  
  
Burning Mirror  
  
The chase led north. Beneath the trees the land grew treacherous as ravines and streams became common, until all was an endless succession of river valleys. Too wide to leap, courses had to be charted through them, slowing the pursuit, but also the one who fled. The wounded ninja had the advantage of knowing the terrain, but his wounds limited motion and slowed his speed. Relentlessly, the pair from Konoha gained on him.  
  
When night fell they were less than an hour behind. Neji considered pressing onward, but Xi ordered a halt. "He cannot go far in the darkness, not wounded." The older ninja said. "The danger of finding or running into other, rested ninja is too great. We will camp here." When Neji seemed about to question this, Xi continued in a stern voice. "The mission is not to catch this ninja, simply to insure that he flees from Leaf lands. We are near enough to the border of Waterfall already. In the morning it will be less than two hours north. Now, get your rest, you took your own wounds, even if they were minor."  
  
That was enough for Neji. He had not really wanted to begin a night pursuit, recognizing that it was not wise, he simply did not want to camp. He wanted activity to push the images from his mind of this day. His all- seeing eyes kept displaying two shattered bodies before him, terrible visions he did not want to imagine. The young ninja could not accept yet that he and Xi had been responsible for those ruined forms they called men. An arm shredded, a chest destroyed, these images, soaked in blood, kept broaching Neji's normally supremely ordered mind. All the day he had pushed them away, first by examining the battlefield during the short burial, and then by focusing on the pursuit. Now though, he had no such recourse. He had to face the fact that he had killed a man today.  
  
I ripped him open with rend so easily, Neji recalled. The move was so fluid it seemed a terrible counterpoint to the damage it did. With no resistance by the flesh beyond the changing of the chakra blades, the arm became a ruined mass of flesh and bone. He pushed the image away again, but the blood remained. The blood, indeed, still lingered on his clothing, though he and Xi had used the many streams to wash most of it off, but it did not all come off so easily, and their quick stops had left congealed blood from the dead chuunin lingering in Neji's hair and bandages. Now it seemed as if that caused some strange itch within him, and it made him restless. Is this my future? Neji wondered. To be soaked in blood like this? Those Waterfall ninja, they were not so villainous. We were enemies, certainly, but to destroy them like that, how can that be the right thing? Neji could not see it, could not see past those bodies in his mind. He had expected death, but not in this fashion. He had seen the dead before, but always they had been so much cleaner, not brutally ravaged like this. His Jyouken style had insulated him from the true brutality of combat, by leaving its damage invisible and out of sight from the one who delivered it. The coldly logical and ordered portion of Neji's mind knew that it did not matter in what fashion a ninja died, that the clean kill of Xi's Thunder and Lightning strike was no different from the mutilated body left behind by his Back Rake. That portion of the mind was locked into a corner now, in the dark night of the forest, with this deadly ninja Neji's only companion. The rest of him simply refused to accept what he had done fully. He had no answers; perhaps for the first time in his life Neji was cast utterly adrift.  
  
For his part, Xi had seen the look on Neji's face at seeing what he had done. He is strong, but there is no simple way to endure this. Neji kept fighting, kept going, and has not complained. Many lesser ninja would be collapsed on the ground, or desperately trying to get the blood off, even experienced chuunin have broken down at the sight of a body that suffers dragon techniques when the battle is done. Xi, for his part, did not know what to do. When I first used rend it was during a war, and the village Naravki and I were in was destroyed. I fought and ran until I collapsed that day, with no time to think on what had happened, and there was battle the next day. Naravki never told me any comforting words, but I was older than Neji, and had already seen terrible things done to people. Compared to the bloated drowned bodies the Mist ninja had left behind the sight of Rend was not so terrible. Still, I was hesitant to use the jutsu again, Xi recalled, until I knew I had to.  
  
That was the only guide Xi had, that Neji would overcome his reluctance by being placed in a situation where he would need the dragon jutsus. It was an unfortunate tactic, and why he had pressed the pursuit hard. I think there will be a battle tomorrow, perhaps facing the one we search for, but perhaps another. The words of Wusashu lingered in Xi's mind. He had decided to put Neji into a dangerous situation, force him to fight. It was a very risky move, and could result in Neji being seriously injured or killed. If he realizes that I planned such a thing he will likely hate me for it. Xi grimaced at that thought. I don't want him to hate me. It was a strange feeling, for Xi rarely cared about what others thought, he was used to being distant and cold, had adapted to wearing a mask for most of his ninja career, and even now, with his mask broken, he had simply replaced the mask of ceramic with the mask of his flesh. Still, beyond simply creating the greatest dragon ninja he possibly could, Xi felt some sort of duty to Neji. Even though I owe him no debt, it seems as if it should be the other way around somehow. Regardless, he must learn to accept Rend, to force his mind to look past the surface cosmetics. A hard lesson for you, Neji, since you have a sight that pierces deeper than most, but even you must learn that not everything can be seen.  
  
The morning dawned with a vibrant fury, the sun tinged red from the light of the sea to the north. The dragon ninja were up and about under that vibrant light that bathed the forest in a glimmering red tinge. Neji gathered his gear with mechanical precision, eyes focused elsewhere, but even so he had already shaved some time off the difference between him and Xi. The trail extended northward again, and the two ninja went bounding after it, through the rough and formidable coast country. The border with Waterfall was near.  
  
For an hour and a half they went north, approaching the borderline, a line Xi would not cross. He told Neji as much. "We cannot cross into Waterfall directly, for if we were detected it could provide an excuse for war. I would avoid notice easily enough, but you would not, and there are surely ANBU by the border."  
  
"The dragon Wusashu said I would go to Hidden Waterfall." Neji answered, unsatisfied.  
  
"He did, but it is not wise to take a dragon's words literally." Xi answered. "We will see when we reach the border."  
  
Indeed, Xi's words were almost prophetic. As the two ninja crossed within two miles of the border the tail merged with other tracks. The moment he saw them Xi stopped and spun, coming around with Kunai ready.  
  
Neji managed to stop himself by the older ninja, and brought forth the Byakugan.  
  
Xi said nothing, but stood there breathing carefully.  
  
"There is no one for fifty meters." Neji said quietly.  
  
"Silence." Xi barked.  
  
He waited at least two minutes, and then relaxed slightly from his deadly posture, putting away the kunai. Turning to Neji, Xi had a viscous grimace on his face. "Never trust just your ability boy," He said harshly. "Use every signal you have, and be thorough, there will always be something that can trick you." Bitterness crept into Xi's voice.  
  
Unusually harsh, Neji noted. He recalls something like this.  
  
Examining the tracks, both ninja could read what happened easily. Neji spoke them around, confirming what he saw to Xi. "Another platoon met here, and they encountered the one who fled. They went almost directly west, and carried the one I wounded with them."  
  
"Indeed." Xi noted. "And?"  
  
"Since they did not go north, I seems they are setting up an ambush somewhere here, and actually want to fight." Neji answered. What enemy is this, who feels confident enough to fight us? He wondered. No matter, I'll defeat them.  
  
"Most likely." Xi commented. "They would have sent at least one north with the wounded man to insure a report. At most we face three, but one is confident enough to succeed where the jounin failed." Xi appeared to consider this for a moment. "Perhaps a platoon of jounin? We will advance cautiously."  
  
The trail led west for a mile and a half, over rough ground, before expanding out into a canyon. It was a small gray canyon, one with a river at its base, and appeared to dead end into a hillside. Underground stream. Neji decided. There was a small pool before the hillside. Looking down the dragon ninja saw a man standing openly in that pool.  
  
Xi leapt down to stand and face the man at the pool, but drew no weapons. Neji came in a moment afterwards. The man was obviously a ninja, wearing the same uniform that the platoon the day before had worn. Brown and blue, with the bulky brown flak jacket and bright forehead protector. Yet this man had a distinctiveness that the others had lacked. His hair was brown streaked with bright aquamarine, and his eyes burned a fiery red. Then Neji saw the center of the man's collar. There, at the base of the separated rising bands of the flak jacket's neck guard, hung a great aquamarine. The gemstone was impressive, a gleaming jewel that sparkled majestically and seemed to hold the power of the ocean sky. So this is Ryukin, Neji knew instantly. The Waterfall ninja stood on the edge of the pool, water touching the tops of his sandals. He was coolly composed, with a smirk on his face.  
  
Neji moved to speak, but Xi preempted him. "You sent your companions north?" He asked in an emotionless voice.  
  
"You speak!" Ryukin spoke as if astonished, but his voice had a cruel lacing. "I thought that Konoha's Killer never talked."  
  
"I will not deny the blood on my hands," Xi answered in his same cold tones. "But you mistake me if you think Konoha controls me."  
  
"Perhaps I do?" He laughed, a harsh and biting noise. "But if I do, what is that boy standing beside you. Not just a leaf ninja, but one of the oh-so-enlightened Hyuuga clan. Spare me your denials."  
  
"Answer my first question." Xi demanded.  
  
"Why?" Ryukin laughed again. "Why should I answer you anything, you killed my fellow ninja."  
  
"They died for trespassing on Leaf land and attacking Leaf ninja. So far you are guilty only of the first. Answer my question and perhaps that can be ignored."  
  
"I will answer your question because it amuses me, not because your threat taunts me, but because it will amuse me to thwart you." Ryukin put his hands in his pockets. "I sent them north, and they are well across the border by now."  
  
Xi's face went unchanged. "Then I will not fight you."  
  
Neji stifled a gasp, confused, and his eyes narrowed at Xi.  
  
"I thought not, the Killer never deviates from his mission they say, those who have seen him and survived." Ryukin laughed again.  
  
"I will not fight you, but that does not make you safe, Waterfall ninja." Xi turned his head to see Neji. "This is your mission, not mine. You will fight him alone."  
  
Hearing this Neji suspected Xi of something, but that was swallowed by the bloody image of the broken bodies of the day before. Fight him? Why? It seemed so useless. Certainly the gem the man wore was impressive, but why was that such an important thing. Neji hesitated in responding.  
  
"You? Fight me?" Ryukin laughed. "This Hyuuga boy will fight me, Ryukin the Scorching Ninja?"  
  
The expression on Xi's face grew darker when he heard that, but he said nothing more.  
  
I will not simply fight this man. Neji decided. I just need the gem. "That gem you wear, I am to retrieve it. That is my mission." Neji told Ryukin in his most viscous voice.  
  
"Your words bite, little Hyuuga, but I do not care. I took this little item myself, and I have no intention of surrendering it to the likes of you. Come, try and take it from me."  
  
"You underestimate me, I will retrieve it." Neji spoke firmly. Indeed, I will take it back and leave you watching.  
  
Xi saw the strange look in Neji's pupil-less eyes from the corners of his own. With out facing him he spoke to the air. "This man is a dangerous opponent, Neji. Don't think to fight as anything but a dragon ninja, or you will perish. He will enjoy killing you I am sure."  
  
Don't tell me what to do, Xi. Neji thought. I will do this my way. You are trying to force this fight on me, don't think I don't know it.  
  
Xi stepped back, and then leaped away with a sudden motion. I hope this is the right choice. Concern flooded him, and he barely avoided an attack of indecision. No, from this point forward it must play out without my intervention.  
  
Ryukin stood casually, looking at Neji with those red eyes. He mouth was twisted into a viscous smile. He looked almost hungry.  
  
He will attack now. Neji realized. "Byakugan!" Neji activated the technique, his vision altering to encompass everything around him, and to see the chakra moving through the body of the Waterfall ninja.  
  
"Humph." Ryukin mocked. His left foot slid to one side, and his hands ripped out of his pockets, hurling a swarm of kunai and shuriken at Neji. Neji raised his hands to block.  
  
The Waterfall ninja's hands flashed through a series of seals. "Shuriken Water Mirror no jutsu!" He called. Water from the pool launched into the air; forming twin mirrors to each of the weapons he had thrown, tripling the number of targets.  
  
It doesn't matter if there are more, Neji knew, they're just weapons. Not even as many as Tenten would use. His hands moved, and with precision he knocked every one of the attacks away. He found that with his increased chakra control it was even easier than before, his hands moving almost as fast as his vision.  
  
The metal weapons clashed away as Neji struck them, but those made of water burst onto his hands. They did no damage, but Neji's hands were wet when the attack finished.  
  
This is bad! Xi saw. I feared this! He uses that technique!  
  
Neji moved to charge in for his own attack, but Ryukin raised his hands and formed a single seal. "Secret Technique. Mizuho* (*Mizuho hopefully translates into something resembling Waterfire) no Jutsu." He bored into Neji with his red eyes and laughed.  
  
The water on Neji's hands burst into flames.  
  
Pain seared him instantly, but Neji reacted quickly. Is this chakra construction? Then I'll cut it with my own, just like those damn spider strands. He rushed chakra out of his hands and tried to rip the chakra apart. The flames vanished for a moment, and Neji smiled.  
  
Ryukin smiled back. The flames reappeared.  
  
What? Shock rippled through Neji. I cut the chakra!  
  
"Even if you can cut the chakra, Hyuuga boy," Ryukin laughed. "The water is real, and you cannot get rid of that. Your bloodline power is not so potent as mine."  
  
Neji could already tell that the flames would not be extinguished if he smothered them, that water would burn without air. I have to get it off. Only one option! "Kaiten!"  
  
The whirl spun with tremendous force, and flung the burning water off of Neji. It impacted everywhere around, igniting small blazes.  
  
Ryukin grimaced as Neji looked at him triumphantly. "Not so potent as your own." He remarked. "You're not so strong."  
  
"So that is the true power of the Hyuuga? An ultimate defense?" Ryukin appeared to consider. "It doesn't matter, I will burn you."  
  
Holding his singed and pained hands, Neji began to sense something strange about this battle, a familiar sense to his opponent.  
  
"Mizuho technique! Burning liquid skin!" Water from the pool flowed up over Ryukin, coating him with a shining liquid layer. Then it caught fire.  
  
Damn! Neji thought. That's dangerous. He didn't have any more time for thought then, as his opponent charged. Fast! Neji saw.  
  
"Kaiten!"  
  
The two attacks impacted hard. Neji knocked Ryukin back, but water from the man's hands crashed through the whirl, clinging and burning his body before being thrown off. He clenched his teeth against the pain. Still, that has to wear us both...down.  
  
Ryukin stood up, water burning all around him. He appeared uninjured. "Even as it attacks and burns you, the water cushions me from your counterattack. It may take time, but eventually I'll scorch enough of you that you won't be able to spin anymore.  
  
Damn! Neji thought. Fine then, I'll attack. He dropped into a crouch, raising one hand high behind him, and the other low, two fingers extended in both places. The gaze of his Byakugan lanced into the other ninja's mind. The circle of divination appeared in the minds of both ninja. "Hakke Rokujyu Yonshou!" Neji attacked.  
  
"Useless." Ryukin spoke. A blast of burning water surged out from him, flooding the line Neji was attacking. He dodged aside at the last moment, fire clinging to his coat. Only his newfound chakra control prevented him from being immolated.  
  
"Your ability is inferior to mine, Waterfall's most feared technique, Mizuho, and I am the Scorching Ninja, master of it."  
  
He charged in to attack again, and as he did Neji realized what was familiar about this battle. This man is me! He saw with terrifying shock. He was reliving the battle of the chuunin exam from Naruto's perspective. My techniques do nothing!  
  
Still, no choices remained at the moment. "Kaiten!"  
  
Again he blocked the attack, but suffered burning damage. The marks now rippled up and down his arms and chest, his jacket had holes ripped into it from the flames, and his hair had burned away in places.  
  
"Please!" Ryukin mocked. "You're only prolonging your death this way." He gloated.  
  
Is this what I was like? Neji wondered, frightened by this enemy for the first time in his life. It was not the techniques, but what this man represented. Is this what I was? He wondered. Will I die here? I am not Naruto. I have no hidden powers.  
  
Even as he thought that, Neji knew it was a lie. He did have hidden powers. They swam in his mind even now, an image of blades. Rend. No, I will not use that. I will not do that to anyone, even this man. Not over a jewel.  
  
"Is that all you're capable of?" Ryukin asked with mockery. "I thought Hyuuga was the Leaf's strongest clan. They must be weaker than I thought."  
  
Hearing those words, Neji remembered what Xi had told him about the mission. The Waterfall must not be allowed to think the Leaf weak. That was why dragon ninja had gone on the mission, to convince them in the only way that was incontestable, by killing. A cold knot formed in Neji's stomach then. I am not being a dragon ninja. Fighting like this, I am undoing all we did yesterday. He saw then something just as horrible as the bloody bodies that floated behind his refracted eyes. I am making those deaths meaningless. To make that killing matter, I have to kill here.  
  
Neji hated that thought; it burned his mind with the ice of it. He thought it despicable, to kill to give killing meaning, but he knew it was the truth. This is the destiny I have taken onto myself. With that he made the cold choice, and recalled the image of rend to the fore.  
  
"It seems you have no other trick to try." Ryukin looked at Neji from behind his flaming glaze. "Well, then I'll simply break you down."  
  
He came on again.  
  
Neji tried to dodge aside, but the other ninja was faster, faster than even before, the water seemingly carrying him along. No choice, nothing I can do. "Kaiten!"  
  
The spin barely held this time, burning had damaged many of the tenkentsu in Neji's body, and more fire came through and did additional damage. At most once more, he saw, and then it collapses. I have to strike with enough force to break through that burning skin, but how? Rend could cut through, but as long as that pool provides him a water source I can't close with him. If only there were some way to counterattack as he came in.  
  
At that moment there were twin images in Neji's mind, the vision of Rend that he must use to strike, and the spinning potency of Kaiten, and afterimage upon the lenses of the Byakugan. In this he saw something, like he had seen before with rend, when he saw it with Hyuuga eyes truly for the first time. This time, he saw the Hyuuga jutsu with the precise eyes of the dragon ninja. The Kaiten is not solid! He realized, each chakra hole is at a slightly different level, and each forms a tiny band around me as it releases, which all forms together into the Kaiten. A moment more, and then he saw it.  
  
As he stood panting before Ryukin's flaming form, Draci Neji dropped into a fighting crouch, and a dark smile came over his face, even as tears gathered unwilling in his eyes. It doesn't matter whose technique is superior, but whose technique kills the enemy.  
  
Xi, on the edge of intervening to try and save Neji, stood down.  
  
"Your strength is gone." The Scorching Ninja sneered. "Your life ends here boy."  
  
The watery form, livid red with impossible flames, came on.  
  
Neji stood ready, and at the precise moment summon every last bit of chakra he had remaining. He began the spin, twin images in his mind, and forming into a singular attack. "Clawing Whirlwind!" Neji shouted, and he channeled his chakra into the spin. Every chakra hole in the body released its chakra, but not simply in a blasting storm as he usually did for Kaiten. He had seen the form behind the technique, and he saw what else he could do with the technique. With tremendous focus, he shaped the emanation from every chakra hole into the brilliant edge of rend, and let them be carried around and outward by the force of his spin.  
  
A whirling storm of razor edges exploded from Neji.  
  
Ryukin impacted the technique and felt the cuts come through him, his watery coating did not shift and shield as before, but was ripped apart as hundreds of blades cut across its fabric. Neji spun, and those blades continued, impacting in the flesh of the Waterfall ninja.  
  
The spin ended, and from his crater in the earth Neji saw the body of Ryukin fall. There was nothing left of the front of the ninja. He had been lathed with a knife-edge shaped sharper than the sharpest katana, and blood and slashed flesh and clothing were all that remained. Neji collapsed to the ground, in shock, pain, exhaustion, and no small horror.  
  
Standing uphill of them both Xi sank to his knees in astonishment. His mouth was wide open. He could not reason clearly. He...he...he combined two jutsus! That much became clear in a moment. The Rend...and...and Kaiten. I cannot believe it! Xi's normally perfect composure was gone. The ultimate counterattack, an ultimate defense combined with a lethal attack. With that jutsu alone you could be almost impossible to defeat. Xi's reasoning was unable to precede much past that for a time. He had expected the Byakugan would increase the power of dragon jutsus for Neji, but not this. The youth had just created a combined technique that even a Kage level ninja might be hard pressed to counter.  
  
It was long minutes before Xi stood up, composed his face somewhat, and walked over to Neji.  
  
The young ninja was staring blankly through Ryukin's body, holding the gem that had been strung to the front of his flack jacket. For some strange reason, the aquamarine stone had gathered not a drop of blood on it.  
  
Neji looked up as Xi approached. His face was a mask of pain and torment. "I knew I had to kill him." He said, holding back the urge to scream the words. "But like this?"  
  
"Would your burned corpse please your friends more because they could see your face?" Xi bit off, not thinking and not wanting to deal with the situation.  
  
The look that Neji shot back at Xi was filled with a terrible anger, and he seemed ready to leap at the older ninja. Then it faded, slowly, into sadness. "No, no, I suppose it would not matter. But do those like us have any friends?" It was a desperate question.  
  
"Was this man you just fought any less cruel than you?" Xi asked, knowing Neji could see the answer. "We do what we do because we must. There are those who will understand that, and they will accept you. This man, he could not have friends." Xi said nothing beyond that.  
  
Neji nodded his head. "Very well." He spoke the words with conviction, but they could not drive the body in front of him from the front of his mind. He looked down at the gem in his hand. This thing seems too pure to be the source of all this violence. He ripped it off the flak jacket and stuffed it into his shuriken pouch, one of the few whole pockets that remained on his jacket.  
  
"Keep that." Xi told him. "Until you summon Wusashu again."  
  
A slight nod came in response.  
  
"Come." Xi requested. "We will consign this man to this pool to his end. That is fitting for a ninja of his kind. Then we will head south. Your wounds are serious, and will need treatment."  
  
It was done in a moment, the remains of the body sinking into the pool, which turned dark and red for a moment with the taint of blood, but the stream flowing through soon washed it away. By that moment the dragon ninja were already gone.  
  
Though he had almost forgotten it when Neji displayed his miraculous technique, as they sailed through the trees south, Xi recalled the original purpose to the fight. It appears the risk succeeded, at least for now. Still, he said nothing of it to Neji as they traveled. 


	11. Day of Expectation

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: This chapter is something of an interlude, but important things happen anyway. Still, this is basically the switch from the 'become a dragon ninja' part of the story to another story arc.  
  
Reviewers: Many thanks to all, and some comments:  
  
Synaptix: This is actually almost an all-original character fic, since Neji is currently stuck between life and death at the moment. Regardless, I wrote this in the way it is because I didn't want to change the plotline but add to it. I'm glad you appreciate it.  
  
Ravens Quill: Battles are actually the hardest part to write, since its difficult to keep the tension high and the detail high at the same time, it nice to know I seem to be managing some sort of balance.  
  
Orlha: The past of the mysterious Xi will eventually become clear, slowly and mostly far in the future. I do keep dropping little hints though.  
  
Day of Expectation  
  
The Hokage's office was an intimidating sight for most of those who visited for the first time. With its mountain of reports and the stern presence of Tsunade crowding the small room there were few ninja who could not help but feel that they were not interrupting something important that did not concern them by being there. It was an effective tool for the Hokage to have at busy times.  
  
Neji was not intimidated. Tsunade was not someone who truly impressed him. He did not deny her power, certainly, but he thought she lacked focus. The Fifth simply failed to measure up to the grand expectations he had been given before actually meeting her. Of course, this was partly a side effect of her constant use of Henge, which Neji could see completely through with glances of his Byakugan. That two-faced nature lowered his perceptions of Tsunade further than for those who were simply aware of the illusion. Still, he was respectful, as he always was to those more powerful than himself.  
  
The dragon ninja who stood next to Neji was certainly not respectful. Instead he was visibly tense, as was Tsunade. The two ninja stared at each other viscously whenever there was silence, as if locked in a match of wills. They were opposites, and though they nominally served the same side Xi and Tsunade's visions of the ninja were so utterly incompatible as to make their dislike perhaps far fiercer than if they had been enemies. However, they kept that behind their teeth and managed to at least appear civil to each other.  
  
"I have the reports you two submitted." Tsunade began, gesturing to the sheets of paper she held. Neji looked at those papers angrily, for Xi had forced him to compose his own report, and the process was mind-numbing and ridiculous enough to make him understand why many upper level ninja always forced them on their subordinates. Tenten had always been given the duty of completing his team's. The situation was made more aggravating because Xi and Neji's relationship had no classification. The form they had submitted described a mission between "temporarily allied ninja from different shinobi countries," and broke most of the acceptable protocols for such things. It also made the reports almost completely useless. Making that out was a waste of my time. Neji glowered at the memory.  
  
"We all know these things aren't very helpful." Tsunade continued, being frank. "Still, I gather that you accomplished the mission and drove the Waterfall ninja off. That is acceptable." Now she glowered at both of them, her kind face growing stormy and angry. "You also undertook an action outside your objectives, and killed a Waterfall ninja in the process." She fumed. "I will not accept that, Xi"  
  
"That is not my responsibility." Xi answered calmly. "That dragon mission was undertaken entirely by Draci Neji, I was simply in the area with him because of our joint mission. You will have to address your complaints to him."  
  
"Don't dodge responsibility Xi!" Tsunade barked at him. "You were the one who instigated this."  
  
"Missions in the service of the dragons are undergone by all dragon ninja." Xi replied coldly. "This was Neji's mission, for a dragon I neither summoned nor spoke to. Say what you will, but you cannot hold me responsible for this."  
  
"Fine." Tsunade hissed. "Very well. Neji." She turned her angry gaze towards him. "What excuse do you offer for this violation of orders?"  
  
For the past few exchanges Neji had been thinking rapidly. Xi had not prepared him for these questions, and was forced to try and come up with something that would satisfy Tsunade without the older ninja's aid. Damn! He thought. What do I say? "I was given the mission by the dragon I summoned." He began.  
  
"I don't care!" Tsunade bellowed. "I don't care about all your dragon ninja garbage. You are a ninja of Konoha! You follow my direction, not those of some spirit beast!"  
  
Thinking fast, Neji managed a halfway thought out response. "But, but those directions did not conflict."  
  
"What?" Tsunade looked incredulous. "You expect me to believe that?"  
  
Having begun in this vein Neji thought fast, and tried to continue. "Well, we did not violate our orders. The mission I carried out for the dragons resulted from our pursuit of the fleeing Waterfall ninja, and we did not cross over into Waterfall country."  
  
"So!" Tsunade's anger hadn't faded in the slightest. Her brow had gathered together stormclouds filled with fury. Neji knew only some of it was cause by this incident, and most by the mountain of reports that the Hokage reputedly despised dealing with constantly. "That doesn't excuse killing another ninja! You had no reason to do that!"  
  
Neji heard those words and felt anger rise in him, but he held it back, forcing control. How dare she imply that I wanted to kill Ryukin! He raged. He could still see that body in his mind, the absolute destruction of the front of a man. "He attacked first." Neji answered, voice as cold as it had ever been, the dark viciousness in it. "I asked him to give back what he had stolen, and he attacked me. I had no way to win the battle without killing him. He would have killed me. He did not even offer a chance to surrender." Neji stared at Tsunade, making him stare at his body, to see the fading burn marks on his arms, legs, and face. He could have said nothing more, but he continued, saying one final thing. "Do not say that Xi should have stopped him, he cannot fight without killing another, the same as me. We are dragon ninja, those who fight us know death is the consequence." The instant after saying those words Neji felt he had betrayed himself. Did I really mean that? It seemed as if he had stolen the phrases from Xi's mouth. Still, they are true, that is my fate, to kill, and you cannot change that Tsunade.  
  
For long moments Tsunade stared deep into Neji, and he could feel her trained medic's eyes probing him, body and soul. Still, as deep as her gaze penetrated, it was nothing compared to the Byakugan his uncle could inflict upon him. He had nothing to hide that such a glimpse could penetrate. "Be very careful with when you think like that, Neji." Tsunade said at last, voice low and defined. "Justification of death is a dangerous road."  
  
Neji nodded, but did not say anything in response. He measured the words, but concluded that Tsunade wasn't saying anything he didn't already know.  
  
Turning away from Neji, Tsunade looked at Xi. "Since this mission is complete I suppose you will be requesting another?"  
  
The response was a short shake of the head and one of Xi's half- smiles. "Actually no." He replied somewhat glibly. "I intend to continue Neji's training and will therefore need to be absent from Konoha for some time."  
  
Tsunade thought for a moment, and then nodded. "Ah, I see, so that's what you plan." The response confused Neji, who was unsure what they were talking about. "As you wish, but while I accept him, Konoha will not be supplying any other ninja for this endeavor of yours."  
  
The dragon ninja bowed his head. "Of course, I will make arrangements. However, I will tell you now that this last mission has made me very suspicious of Hidden Waterfall. We will probably pass through there on the way. Would you like a report?"  
  
"And incur more of your debts?" Tsunade said sarcastically. "I suppose I have little choice, but Neji-"  
  
Neji raised his head and focused fully on the conversation at hand once again. "Yes?"  
  
"You will give a full report on whatever you determine is going on in Waterfall. The mission is a joint one, so that Konoha will owe Draci Xi proportionally less. Besides, you ought to justify your salary anyways."  
  
Neji indicated his acceptance with a nod of the head.  
  
"Fine." Tsunade barked. "Then get out, I've got work to do, and no time to spend chatting."  
  
The two dragon ninja shuffled out of the Hokage's office. As the walked down the hall Neji wanted to ask Xi about what he had said, but he held his words in instead, trying to force the other ninja to tell him. They were silent until they had almost left the building.  
  
"Since you are still not fully healed, I suppose you can take the day off." Xi told Neji. "What's left of it anyway. Tomorrow I'll see you at the training ground. We need to begin work on your next jutsu."  
  
The younger ninja nodded, and started to walk away.  
  
"Enough Neji." Xi said almost immediately. "It's hardly productive for us to not talk to each other. You wish to know what I was saying to Tsunade, correct? Don't be so proud as to not ask."  
  
"Very well." Neji bit back. "What are these plans of yours then?"  
  
"Do you know how much time has passed since the last Chuunin Exam?" Xi asked simply.  
  
From those words Neji immediately could grasp what Xi's plans were, but he answered anyway. It took some time to count the days up in his head, especially considering he had spent many of them in the hospital. "At least three and a half months." He said finally.  
  
"Indeed, and there are only about four months and three weeks from the end of one exam to the start of the next. I fully intend that you become a chuunin in the next exam." Xi said firmly. "You've proven yourself a dragon ninja, fought multiple battles against skilled opponents and been victorious, and of course your skill level is hardly in question. So, you will go to the chuunin exam."  
  
"By why does that matter now, Gai-sensei gave us only a few days warning about the exam really. What can possibly be done with five weeks to go?" Neji asked seriously, puzzled slightly. "Besides, I cannot take the exam, my team is gone."  
  
"Those answers are linked." Xi said simply. "Yes your team is gone, so you need to get a new team. That is part of the reason we need five weeks, the other is that you will not be taking the exam here."  
  
"What?" Neji snapped. "But I am a ninja of Konoha!"  
  
"Yes, but Tsunade is not going to give you a team for the exam, and you do not have a jounin sponsor from Konoha anymore, unless you intend to ask your uncle." Xi smirked. "I'm your sponsor, which means you qualify as a lightning ninja as far as the exam is concerned. Lightning ninja rarely take the exam in Konoha; they take it in the Hidden Village of Stone, which holds their exam at the same time. You perhaps noticed the absence of Mist, Lightning, and Stone ninja at this exam? That is because they were in Stone. Well," Xi admitted. "Usually some come here, just as some from Konoha or Sand go elsewhere, but these circumstances were unusual. Of the five weeks we have, at least two will be taken going to Stone, especially since we will travel through Waterfall. The other weeks will be spent working on your training, which is far from complete, and waiting for your team to arrive."  
  
"My team?" Neji asked with hard eyes.  
  
"You expect ninja from Konoha to go to Stone with you? Konoha is too busy to send many ninja to the chuunin exam now, and certainly cannot spare anyone for such a lengthy journey. I will send to those contacts I still have in Lightning. You will have teammates."  
  
That did not sound at all promising to Neji. Still, he understood that's Xi's words made sense. Beyond that, his genin status rankled him. I have killed chuunin in combat. He was not proud of that, but he knew he did not deserve the rank of Genin after that. Besides, I will have to kill more as a genin than a chuunin, since no one will take me seriously. That much, Neji was certain of, and he knew he would change it. "So what jutsu will you teach me?" He asked. "The one you used on the Waterfall ninja?"  
  
"Back rake?" Xi appeared surprised. "No, not that. It is simple enough once you learn rend that you can learn it after an explanation. Until your teammates arrive I had something else in mind. A jutsu called Aerial Reversal. It is an unusual technique, and not often used, but it contains ranged elements, an area your are somewhat deficient in."  
  
Neji agreed to that silently. I am indeed far better at close combat.  
  
Xi continued. "I admit that most ranged attacks are not very useful against you, or any dragon ninja in fact, once your chakra control reaches this level of precision it becomes difficult to use them against you. Only a few of the dragon jutsus incorporate a ranged element. Still," And Xi looked at Neji knowingly. "I believe this is a good jutsu to teach you now, you should be able to make use of it. So, come see me tomorrow and we will begin as before."  
  
Once more Draci Xi left him standing in Konoha, something Neji was beginning to sense was a pattern. Where does he go? He wondered, always uncertain what the dragon ninja was doing. Everyone in Konoha ignored the man, from the academy students who were unaware of his presence to the strongest of the jounin who seemed always to congregate in groups when Xi approached.  
  
The fading scars of Neji's body itched, a constant reminder of his most recent battle. The medics had told him that the burns were not deep enough to leave permanent scars, but only barely. They would be painful and bothersome for several days at least. Surprisingly, it had not been that long and the pain had already dulled to mere itching, the scars healing faster than expected. Likewise the minor wound to his arm. It had surprised Neji, along with the medics, until he had examined the wounds using the Byakugan. The medics had been astounded when he told them he was channeling chakra across the wounds constantly, making his body focus his energy there. It was apparently unconscious.  
  
When Xi had visited Neji, they had discussed the matter. It was commonplace, Xi told him, for dragon ninja to recover faster. It was simply an aspect of becoming stronger as a ninja. "Chakra control is the basis of all ninjutsu, and life. A jounin will have greater proficiency with chakra than a genin, and his body will know it. Jounin heal faster than genin, haven't you noticed? It is the same for dragon ninja, except the extent to which we force chakra control is far greater than most other ninja. Don't come to rely on this however, you only heal faster because you aren't using your chakra to move, if wounded in battle you will have nothing to spare, and will heal just the same as any other."  
  
It was something Neji had taken to heart. Everything centered around chakra control. This caused him to alter his assessment of other ninja. Normally, we assign levels based on the amount of chakra a person has, and can wield, as well as jutsus known and special powers such as bloodline limits. Yet, how one can control chakra matters at least as much as those factors if not more, though few ninja take advantage of it. Looking at things this way, Neji found that the determinations of genius and dropout he had long held were far from the truth. Everything was more complicated than he had seen before.  
  
Though Xi had given him the rest of the day off, there was little for Neji to do in Konoha. He found he did not want to see anyone much. There was a distance between him and the ninja he had known now. Almost as if I really had died. Neji decided. I am a different person from who I was, Draci Neji instead of Hyuuga Neji.  
  
Nevertheless, Neji found himself at the Hyuuga estate, where he spoke with one of his cousins for a time. He learned the news of Konoha, most of which was hardly positive, and of the rest of the clan, which was even less so. While most of the Hyuuga family had been retained in the village for defense, several such as his father's brother, had been sent out. One of those had actually died on a mission, Neji learned numbly. He had missed the funeral while on his own mission. It was a sobering thing to learn, despite that Neji felt really nothing for the relatives he had spent most of his life either hating or looking down upon in contempt. Yet, even the mighty Hyuuga clan was not immortal, and Konoha's strength was reduced. All the more reason to become a chuunin, Neji determined. So that I can fight and others can remain here.  
  
It was a long night at the Hyuuga estate, and a surprisingly cold one. Winter was coming, and it looked to be a bitter season. There would be two weeks more until the genin Xi had summoned arrived from Hidden Cloud.  
  
* * *  
  
Neji hit the ground hard, hands first, but despite his fall of over forty feet he channeled chakra and fielded it easily, rolling upright instantly. So close! He had almost completed the Aerial Reversal perfectly. Probably it was good enough now to kill a person almost every time, but Neji wanted to be absolutely certain. Besides, he had nothing else to do this morning. Where is Xi? He wondered. The other ninja was unusually absent, even though he had worked with Neji for most of the week, practicing the new move. It's a lot harder to try and do this without him here. Neji quenched the urge to curse the other ninja, knowing it was pointless to rail against the man's actions. I'll just do this again.  
  
He stood at one end of the field, and launched into a run, reaching top speed as quickly as possible. Then he leaped, forcing chakra into his legs to carry him high into the air. He held a kunai in each hand.  
  
The jump carried Neji high and fast, as he extended all out in the upward direction, like a fish leaping out of the water, or a bird climbing into the sky. Then he twisted.  
  
It was difficult, to twist in midair with nothing to press off of. He was not trying to simply alter his direction or speed, but do a complete one hundred and eighty degree reversal, all the while maintaining his blistering speed. Chakra shifted throughout his body, altering the tension in his muscles, shifting water internally, and changing the weight within him. It was hard, given his current posture; Neji couldn't see the flow of chakra through his body, he had no guide other than his mind. That had initially made the jutsu impossible to even attempt, until Xi had forced him to practice doing it blindfolded and let him hit the ground hard when he failed.  
  
The chakra shifted his form, and Neji's hands dropped down from their extension, at the same moment his whole body rolled and contorted. The move was snap-quick, a single chorded motion that shifted every bit of energy from one direction to the other. From going up toward the sun, Neji was now headed down toward the ground. The move extracted a shuddering force on his body, and his tissues screamed from the abuse of the turn, but his momentum remained, and his arms, moving with the spin had an even greater momentum, and they came around with all the strength his muscles and chakra could compel into them, to hurl the kunai down the path he had been traveling.  
  
The weapons went off at blistering speed, faster than normal eyes could see, and with enough strength to penetrate into the ground up to the hilts. After them came Neji, his arms snapped down to grasp his nekode after the release of the kunai, and then back up to strike any potential enemy. Both legs and arms extended down now, for a second they had tremendous force behind them.  
  
Then the air caught up with him, and Neji began to slow, until he hit the ground hard once more.  
  
He then felt great pain in his knees, and slid to the ground. Enough. That was enough. Neji could tell. Still not perfect, but that will serve. The reversal is quick enough to override and power past any defense. It will serve. His muscles ached and burned from the strain, the move did put a strain on them, from the incredible turn it required they sustain. Still, it was a temporary thing, the result of fluids and other materials being forced through the tissue, and the sudden turn provided the killing force needed, by projecting the momentum forward and by freeing the ninja from the grip of air for a bare moment. A move modeled after a dragon's ability to reverse in midair, the Aerial Reversal, a technique to deliver death to anyone behind a leaping dragon ninja. Now I know this as well, Neji realized. Four dragon jutsus, summoning, rend, back rake, and now aerial reversal. Four out of twenty one. It took two months to learn rend, but only a few days for back rake, and only a week and a half for this. How long will the others take? There were both positives and negatives. These taijutsu type moves I am beginning to master easily, he realized. My ability to control my chakra has increased greatly even in such a short time. Yet, there are surely moves that require very different skills, like the Dragon's Eye. Those will take longer.  
  
Yet Neji was confident he would learn all the jutsu. He was certain now that he could achieve that. Fate had granted him the skill to control his chakra well, and he would learn the dragon jutsus, and forge the uncontrolled destiny of the man called Draci Neji. He was as certain of it as he had ever been of anything. Sitting on a log for a moment, resting, Neji allowed himself to ponder the future. Xi was difficult to read, but he had hinted something big was coming. We are going back to Waterfall. The concept made him edgy. He had killed ninja from Waterfall, he did not want to visit their village, did not want to have to think of those bloody bodies as anything more than enemies. Is it Waterfall, or the Chuunin Exam, or something else? Neji wondered. What will I do after the Chuunin exam, go on more missions? He decided he would just have to wait. Xi will tell me, I hope, I don't really know what he's capable of. I will find out eventually. Beyond that there were the words of Wusashu, the dragon he had summoned. He remembered those eyes, and remembered the dark portents there. Though the sun was warm above, Neji shivered.  
  
Suddenly he sensed something. Xi? Neji wondered. He did not call forth the Byakugan, but sat upright, searching out the sounds and signals. Footsteps, three pairs. One is Xi's, definitely; there is not another ninja I have ever met to walk like that with such directness. A directness Neji did not realize he himself had to a lesser extent. Two others, one heavy, one lighter, perhaps a man and woman?  
  
Knowing that the three were walking together, and that one was Xi Neji relaxed. It must be the team. That is the only thing it could be. Neji stood resting against the log, waiting.  
  
Xi crested the hill along with two other ninja, who both wore lightning forehead protectors. He tossed Neji a half-smile. "See, your team has arrived, dragon ninja." 


	12. Clouds Gather

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: New characters! Yay! Or perhaps finally is the right word, since I've been wanting to bring in these two for a long time, to give Neji someone to interact with (Xi really doesn't count). Anyway, now I get to establish the team. This chapter is pretty long for that reason, but there should be a good mix of stuff in it.  
  
Thanks to all who review! And as usual, I'll try to respond to your stuff:  
  
Orhla: Aerial Reversal is a weird jutsu; the best visual analogy I can come up with is when a snake or eel reverses direction in water by turning their body over. That's sort of the principle.  
  
Ali Ahmed: Thanks! Those are some really good points you raised. Here's something of my take: Neji isn't really turning his back on Konoha and everyone so much as being separated from them by circumstances. This is partly a writing artifice. I'm trying to conflict with the plotline to come as little as possible, so I've forsworn interaction with any characters who might conceivably be doing something else. Otherwise: Neji really had only one friend previously, that being Tenten, he hated or was contemptuous of his family (they can kind of kill him at will). He will be loyal to Konoha, and definitely to his teammates who have just arrived. About Tsunade, well, yeah maybe she is a bit out of character, I have trouble writing that kind of person, and Tsunade in the manga tends to go through rather wild emotional gyrations. Part of how she is described is that whenever you encounter she's speaking as the Hokage, not herself, and because Xi's present. She most definitely doesn't trust him, which is why they keep tensing up whenever they encounter each other. If the situation wasn't so dire she'd probably do all sorts of horrible things to him. Which leads into the bit about lightning village. Tsunade doesn't trust Xi, and neither does he really trust her (calls her the witch and all that). Konoha doesn't trust him much either, but the enemy of my enemy is my friend or something, and Xi's attachment to lightning village is not all that dutiful in the first place, and he personally did not fight them in the war. Neji does truly trust Xi either, but then he hard trusts anyone, but Xi did save his life when he could have left him to die, which deep down he (and everybody else) realize was a really strange thing for Xi to do, so that impacts it. This whole puzzle will eventually become clearer as more about Xi's past comes into focus.  
  
Clouds Gather  
  
Two ninja stood by Draci Xi as he arrived, each wearing a lightning forehead protector, one to each side of the dragon ninja. To his left a woman, to his right a man. Similar, but different. Each wore the chuunin uniform of lightning, not the unique outfits of genin, in the gray and blue of the Hidden Village of Cloud. The man wore a false flak jacket of blue over his base garb, while the girl did not. Their bandages matched the standard arrangement that seemed universal to ninja everywhere.  
  
She was a young ninja, and could not have been more than a few months older than Neji himself; though she matched his relatively tall frame with her own lithe form. Her outfit seemed modeled to match Xi's with the extra kunai holster on the lower leg. Her hair was deep, shining black, and kept in a short ponytail, her forehead protector served as the tie. Her eyes seemed a contrast of warmth and coldness, for they were a dark gray blue, and her skin was dusky, unusual on most ninja. Neji noted that there was poise in her step uncommon among most genin, a surety as to her surroundings. Her hands moved constantly through slight shifts, fingers hungry for activity. She greeted him with a smile, and he found himself strangely reminded of Tenten, though they were not at all similar in appearance.  
  
The man was a darker contrast. He was older. At least eighteen, perhaps more, Neji was certain. A long-term genin. He had the grim brown eyes common to most older ninja, and his face was scared by a long mark down in front of his right ear and on the left side of his chin. He wore his short brown hair covered in a bandana, as many older ninja did. The man was not tall, but well muscled, especially his upper body. In fact, Neji thought him surprising that way, and wondered about it. He carried a three foot long steel pole, with hooks on both ends, a very unusual weapon.  
  
They took in Neji as he took in them, silent, ninja weighing those who they were unfamiliar with. When Neji appeared satisfied, Xi made the introductions. "Draci Neji, meet these two lightning ninja, who have answered my request for teammates in the chuunin exam. Senirai Shiren," The young lady ninja nodded to Neji. "And Kabure Gosain." The older lightning ninja simply grunted his acknowledgement.  
  
When no one said anything further Xi scowled. "Well, I have preparations to make for the journey to Stone." He said. "You three need to spend today determining how you will work together." The dragon ninja turned on his heel and walked off.  
  
When Xi was gone the three looked at each other. "So, Shiren and Gosain is it?" Neji asked without inflection.  
  
"And you're Neji." Shiren replied with a bit more enthusiasm.  
  
"Shiren." Gosain said firmly. "I doubt we should be so happy with this. Xi-san told us his dragon ninja student would be leading us in the chuunin exam. You're not what I expected. A boy younger than Shiren. Humph. How many exams have you taken?"  
  
"One." Neji answered honestly. "The most recent here in Konoha, that was disrupted."  
  
"Only one?" Gosain grimaced. "I was beginning to expect that. And Xi expects me to follow you. Ha."  
  
"Why is that a problem?" Neji asked tonelessly.  
  
"Simple." Gosain answered. "I've been to six chuunin exams, why should a boy who's only been to one lead me."  
  
"Gosain, he did make it to the finals, and we know this exam was more challenging than almost any in the past." Shiren interjected. "Though don't mistake me, Neji, we are wondering why Xi wants you to do this."  
  
That answer was a very simple thing, for Neji knew Xi's reasons were the same as his own. "I must become a chuunin so I do not have to kill so many people." He said, his pupil-less eyes meeting the other ninja's.  
  
Shiren gave him a strangely sad look in response, as if she understood. Gosain just grimaced. "Strong words." He said. "Alright, Xi said you'd fought and defeated skilled chuunin in battle, but I won't believe that man on faith. Spies can't ever be trusted. If you're to lead us, prove it."  
  
Ah, so that's it. Neji realized Gosain was a direct type, a ninja who did not believe in words, only actions. If you have failed the chuunin exam six times how strong can you be? He wondered. Still, he would not underestimate this man, for Xi would not have saddled him with the truly weak. At least, Neji hoped. "What did you have in mind?" He asked clearly, no malice in his tone.  
  
"Chuunin are squad leaders, leaders of teams of genin mostly. We've both served under chuunin." Shiren said. "So, we would like to give you a mission." She pulled a scroll from one of her pockets. "We will take this scroll to the exam stadium, and your mission will be to retrieve it before it gets there. Simple enough, yes?" She smiled, a genuinely warm expression that Neji would have had great difficulty matching.  
  
"You agree to this?" Neji asked Gosain.  
  
"Ah," The older ninja replied. "Right now if possible."  
  
Hmm...Neji thought. I don't have all my chakra, since I used up a lot of it training. Still, I need to try and push the level anyway, and it's a reasonable test. "Very well. When the kunai hits the ground?" He reached into his holster.  
  
The two cloud ninja nodded.  
  
Neji tossed the kunai high into the air. It spun for a long moment.  
  
All three ninja tensed, gathering their chakra. Neji could feel his muscles chord and tighten, the pain from his earlier exertions pushed away and forgotten. Gosain gripped his pole with both hands at the lower end, and Neji knew he would fight him first. Still, if I can outmaneuver him and catch Shiren I won't need to fight him. He decided that he would at least try that.  
  
The spinning metal weapon came down, and three ninja listened for the moment of contact.  
  
The kunai hit.  
  
Shiren leapt backwards, spinning in midair, and was off.  
  
Fast, Neji saw, as he dashed right, seeking the trees, so that he could attempt to outmaneuver Gosain and catch up to her.  
  
"Not so fast!" The other cloud ninja was suddenly in front of him. "You're quick, but I knew you'd go this way." Gosain smirked. "Right handed ninja always dash right." He shook his head. "Now you'll have to fight your way past me."  
  
"Which is what you wanted anyway." Neji replied levelly.  
  
Gosain's eyes replied with the truth of that response, and he charged in.  
  
The Byakugan claimed Neji's eyes as he raised his hands to block.  
  
Hard came the attacks from that pole, and Neji's response was just as strong. Even with the reach advantage his weapon gave him, Gosain could not compensate for Neji's knowledge of chakra flow and movement. Still, the older ninja's taijutsu was, if not supremely, skilled, strong and competent, and he fought with a viscous focus that Neji found admirable.  
  
Still. Not enough. Neji flipped in under a strike and dealt a viscous blow to Gosain's midsection. Yet, he did not strike the tenkentsu hard, instead, though a portion of his blow did penetrate to the man's charka circulatory system, Neji found most of his blow deflected by a block of metal. What? Is he wearing plates under that jacket?  
  
"Heh." Gosain muttered as Neji rolled away from the counterstroke. "I'm not that easy to strike boy."  
  
The Byakugan focused in, and Neji saw it. Chains? Gosain wore wrapped chains in cloth under his flak jacket, though the image was hazy. Why didn't I see it before? Neji wondered. Is there some genjutsu in that garment? The chains were puzzling, but they would not be enough to stop Neji. I'll just have to target other areas of the body.  
  
He dashed in, aiming to strike the cloud ninja's arms.  
  
Gosain saw the move, but obviously did not have the speed to dodge the attack, until he did something unexpected. He hooked his pole under his flak jacket, and Neji saw the hooks on the end fit with perfect attachment into links of free chain. So that's it! Neji saw, and he halted his motion and spun backwards.  
  
Chains ripped free from under Gosain's guard, fifteen feet at least attached to each end of his pole, with wicked kunai hanging off the end. The chains were strong and light, and Gosain whipped them into a storm of motion, flashing them all around.  
  
Neji was already tracking, and noting the quickness of Gosain's movement. He moved that fast carrying that much heavy metal, he'll be much faster now. He rolled along the ground, and then launched himself into the air, grasping shuriken.  
  
"Damn you're fast!" Gosain spat. "But it doesn't matter how fast you are, you won't avoid my attacks! Stormfront chain assault!" He called.  
  
The two ends of chain whirled into an advancing line, streaking toward Neji. Fast, extremely fast, those weapons moved. So this is his true skill, a chain fighting style. Neji noted. Still, to control those chains he has to put chakra behind them, and I can see it.  
  
Hard steel coils came in, and Neji's hands ripped out, grabbing them in mid motion.  
  
"What?" Gosain's jaw dropped. "How could you predict their motion?"  
  
"I can see your chakra, Gosain." Neji replied. "A technique like this is useless against me."  
  
"Really?" Gosain chuckled. His hands formed into seals while he gripped the pole. "Chain Lightning Energy!"  
  
Chakra surged down the chains, converted instantly into electricity. Neji barely removed his hands as the vibrant storm arched down to him, cackling with power. Damn! He's put electricity all into the chains. If I touch them I'll be burned. Still, the chakra draw is immense, he can't sustain this, and I can still dodge.  
  
Then Neji realized the Gosain didn't need to sustain the move. If he could keep Neji in place while Shiren escaped, then he would lose. Right, team tactics. I have to remember to think that way. Realizing the situation he was in, Neji knew he had only one real option, to defeat Gosain quickly. How? He wondered.  
  
Charged chains swirled around the two as Neji rolled and dodged, knocking chains away with shuriken when they got to close. He only went a few seconds before he had measured the difference in speed and control between him and Gosain. The chains enhanced the man's speed at a distance because they responded to slight movements of his, but in close, the large weapons would be cumbersome, which was why he fought with the pole. Neji analyzed and saw. There was a point of distance at which he could knock the chains aside and Gosain would not be able to react in time. His strategy was clear.  
  
Neji leaped into the air, and spun forward, coming down in line with Gosain's chest. Chains arched in.  
  
The dragon ninja's hands reached out and grabbed the electrified metal. A shock registered on his hands, but he cut the chakra flow an instant later and hurled the chains aside.  
  
Electricity flowed up the metal in seconds, but that didn't matter, all that mattered was that the chains were out of place, and could not be brought back in.  
  
Gosain wasn't a fool, he saw that he had been outmaneuvered; he dropped his pole and brought his hands up to block.  
  
"Useless!" Neji called as he came in. "Jyouken!" His hands slapped aside Gosain's arms, closing the tenkentsu, and then struck them on his chest, knocking the man to the ground.  
  
The older ninja fell to the ground in pain, but tried to grab his weapon, despite the now uselessness of his arms. Neji kicked it away. "Stay down." He said, and struck hard blows into the Gosain's chest. He regretted inflicting further punishment, but he knew that this man would come after him if he did not. "Now you can't stand, I've closed the tenkentsu on your legs. A good fight," Neji said. "Now I have to find your partner."  
  
He jumped into the trees, leaving the grimacing cloud ninja lying in the training field.  
  
Neji registered a slight pain in his hands, he had not gotten away from Gosain completely unscathed, but that didn't matter. He had to catch Shiren. He focused his eyes, looking through the trees and out into the roofs beyond Konoha.  
  
She was not hard to find. Shiren was moving openly and brazenly past the shocked eyes of many of Konoha's watchful ninja simply because she was not bothering to hide. In spite of the obvious lightning uniform, no one moved to oppose her. Heh. Thought Neji, smart. She's gotten quite the lead on me by doing that. Neji knew catching her might not be that easy. Thankfully the distance to the Stadium was significant, and Neji was a dragon ninja, his pursuit speed had grown with his chakra control. Indeed, all the practice on aerial moves in the past two weeks had greatly increased it. He was off after her in a flash.  
  
Shiren saw Neji coming, as he closed in quickly upon her on the roofs of Konoha's great buildings. She did not stop, though it was obvious he would catch her, but veered aside, getting out of trafficked areas and moving to a distant catwalk. She has decided to fight me, Neji could tell.  
  
Shiren stopped atop a solid stone building, at the edge of central Konoha. Neji recognized the building, the Village's library, a building the ninja rarely used normally, but that hosted plenty of fights atop its sturdy construction. He came in behind her swiftly.  
  
The moment his feet touched the ground Neji was forced to dodge aside from several thrown shuriken. He spun out of the way easily enough, but noticed a tremendous precision behind the weapons. His Byakugan also revealed that in the moment of his spinning roll, when another ninja's sight would have been impaired, she had used the replacement technique to dodge away.  
  
Fast. Neji noted as he slid sideways toward Shiren's true position, she has excellent jutsu speed.  
  
More shuriken came screaming toward Neji, as Shiren realized that he trick had failed. Neji saw their position and slapped them aside with his hands, despite the preciseness of the marks. Her accuracy is better than Tenten's! Neji realized, somewhat astonished. He had not expected to meet another Genin with that kind of accuracy.  
  
Shiren dashed backward, pulling a kunai into each hand, gathering some distance and putting herself on Neji's left. As she moved Neji could see the chakra flowing through her. He was surprised. Her control is excellent; it has the beginnings of what I have seen in Xi, the perfect channels. He immediately upgraded his perceptions of Shiren. A talented opponent, she is better than Gosain.  
  
"How did you see through my replication?" Shiren asked from some distance away, as she fell into a waiting posture.  
  
"Byakugan." Neji answered, allowing Shiren to take a good look at his eyes.  
  
She squinted in from that distance, but was able to see the raised veins and fractal focus of the white eyes of the Byakugan. "You're one of the Hyuuga?" She asked, surprised, but still with a bit of pleasantness in her voice. "That makes this a whole lot harder." She growled and tightened the grip on her weapons. "If I remember what the old war veterans said about the Hyuuga, I can't dare close combat against you."  
  
Neji waited for Shiren's next move, evaluating the situation. He was not just trying to fight and defeat her now; he wanted to get a feel for his future teammate. She did remind him of Tenten, and he suspected she was best at ranged combat. Which makes her weak against me, he knew, unless see can somehow get around Kaiten.  
  
Shiren dropped her waiting posture with blistering suddenness, hurling a kunai straight at Neji before dashing back across his view to her left. She reached down into her shuriken pouch and pulled forth six different weapons, holding them in two groups of three. Then she threw, the weapons expanding into a perfect star pattern.  
  
Almost lazily Neji snatched the kunai out of the air, throwing it back at Shiren right through the middle of the star formation.  
  
When he did that she smiled. "Got you." She said. Her hands flashed through hand seals. "Lightning element: Spark Star no jutsu!" The last seal formed precisely at the moment the kunai contacted the star formation.  
  
Bolts of electrical charge arced between the shuriken, and reached out to grab the kunai. Shiren's technique now had crackling lightning all around the edge of the form and through the center, illuminating the deadly blades.  
  
As the deadly form charged toward him Neji thought rapidly, determining what he could possibly defend with. They will all collapse in upon me if I touch even one, he recognized. I would block that one but the rest of the form would cut and shock me. Well then... "Kaiten!"  
  
The great blast of chakra swirled out from everywhere on Neji's body as the shuriken met him. The form collapsed into the spin, but was then thrown back completely, its power dissipated. The weapons clattered down softly to the rooftop.  
  
Shiren grimaced, but reached into her shuriken pouch once more. "Don't think I'm out of tricks yet." She said.  
  
A problem, Neji realized, breath coming hard. I can't use Kaiten that many more times. I'll have to attack.  
  
He fell quickly into the Jyouken stance, and advanced hard at Shiren.  
  
She hurled more shuriken at him.  
  
They came in twin lines, five each, small light weapons. Neji slapped each one aside as he advanced, so that there were two lines of weaponry embedded behind him in the roof.  
  
He closed with Shiren as she released two last shuriken. What? Neji wondered, for these were not aimed at him. Instead they flee past to impact those two lines. Shiren jumped back at that instant, hands forming into a seal. Neji jumped after her, and then realized something. Damn! He remembered the lightning she had used before.  
  
"Lightning Element: Charged Spark Missiles!"  
  
The two shuriken impacted into the line on the roof, and knocked a grand spark into those buried there. Sparks leapt down the lines of shuriken, building greatly, until they reached the last, which separated from the rooftop and launched toward Neji with tremendous velocity, faster than even his Byakugan could see.  
  
The twin shuriken cackled through the air, matching the sound of their approach in speed.  
  
There was hardly any time to react; those weapons would hit Neji about an instant before he collided with Shiren. So instead, he ignored the female ninja, who could not attack without abandoning the seal anyway, and did what he had been practicing all morning. Neji shifted all the chakra in his body and contorted in midair, coming around with a tremendous force and sound that even drowned out the sound of the approaching missiles. Kunai ripped from his hands then, and his perfect vision tracked them in to knock aside the advancing missiles easily. His hands went down to the nekode then, but Neji let the weapons lie, and instead extended his arms as the ground came up with tremendous velocity. Looking behind him through the Byakugan he saw Shiren's position.  
  
It hurt his hands when he slammed into the library roof, as if a great weight had been dropped upon them, but Neji didn't care. He was already channeling chakra, and as his elbows bent all the way down with the blow, he forced the energy into them and surged back up.  
  
Feet first Neji launched into the air almost as fast as those weapons had, and Shiren, in shock, managed to block only the first foot to her chest. The second slammed in hard, knocking her into a painful crash to the rooftop.  
  
Neji landed on his feet, breathing hard and feeling the pain and strain on his bones from abusing his motion like that. It had forced a tremendous amount of chakra into his arms to pull that maneuver, and his tenkentsu felt as if his uncle had hit them. Shiren hardly looked better, she was bruised and pained as she stood. Her smile had faded, and there was blood on her forehead and in her hair, but she was not done.  
  
Idly it seemed, Shiren pulled the last kunai from her main holster and threw it straight out to the side, so that it embedded in the roof tiles. There's a string attached to that weapon, Neji saw, but what good does it do? She can't have many weapons left now, and she hasn't used a scroll technique like Tenten.  
  
"I'm almost out of tricks, Neji." Shiren said, her voice slightly pained, but not angry. "But maybe you are to?" She suggested.  
  
"Heh." Neji muttered. "We'll see won't we?"  
  
Shiren dropped into the low fighting stance that Neji had only seen once before, hands flat with fingers extended, and the left below the right, the Jinnen fighting style. Neji moved into the ready stance for his Jyouken.  
  
The two ninja charged.  
  
They ran in hard, but Neji saw that not all of Shiren's chakra was focused on the attack. She was running too fast as well, to charge in straight with this much speed, she didn't have the control to dodge any counters he might offer. What is she about to do?  
  
One step before they would have struck each other, Shiren extended her right foot, and threw her left foot outward. She channeled her chakra internally, and spun backwards, pulling on the string that connected to the kunai she had implanted in the ground. She shot back spinning along the string toward her kunai, whirling fast as a tempest, feet flattened against the ground.  
  
What's that supposed to accomplish? Neji wondered for a split second.  
  
"Lightning Anchor!" Shiren called. Her spin stopped suddenly, and the kunai ripped from the ground with the counterforce, but not just the kunai.  
  
The whole string had been converted into electricity, a baleful lightning blot that stretched out from Shiren to the kunai.  
  
It's not chakra! Neji realized in shock. It's from the static energy she generated by the spin! I can't cut it with my own chakra, and I can't dodge the sweep in time!  
  
That kunai came around, leading the bar on its long circle of deadly charge.  
  
Neji did the only thing he could do, and turned to meet it.  
  
Charged string met the dragon ninja. Shiren smiled.  
  
"Rend!"  
  
Shiren looked at Neji in astonishment.  
  
His nekode had met the string, and chakra funneled down it, even as electrical energy crossed over those chakra blades and into Neji. For a second it looked as if he would take the damage from the shock, and then the string exploded, and the kunai flew on past Neji.  
  
"What?" Shiren gasped.  
  
Neji, the skin of his hands slightly charred, looked at her. "I burst your string apart so that the current was broken by enough gap that it couldn't bridge the distance. That is all. Now, are we done?" He asked.  
  
Shiren, bruised and damaged, with most of her chakra used up, and the tenkentsu over her stomach hit from Neji's kick earlier, was hardly in a position to fight, even though Neji had hardly any of his own chakra left, and looked exhausted.  
  
Still, the cloud ninja reached down into her the low secondary kunai holster on her right leg. She pulled a kunai into each hand. "Not just yet." Shiren rasped. She raised her left hand high, kunai pointing downward, and held the right hand low, kunai pointed up.  
  
This stance is...Neji dropped immediately into a fighting crouch and charged in at Shiren.  
  
She responded in kind, moving as fast as she could manage, and then leaping high into the air at the last moment.  
  
Neji tracked her chakra movement, watching for what he knew was about to occur. He saw everything begin as it ought to, and then something failed to complete. From a blinding switch from position to position, Shiren simply became a ninja with two Kunai coming in from above his head. He could still see, and more importantly, could still dodge.  
  
The first kunai came in from above and Neji ducked under it, and then he grasped the secondary low attack with his left hand, his grip coming down vise-like upon Shiren's arm. His right hand crossed back over, and leveled a blow at her stomach. He struck, and Shiren coughed blood and crumpled.  
  
Neji grabbed her arms and held her upright, supporting her. She is lighter than I expected. She looked up a bit at him as she steadied her footing. "Damn that's a hard hit."  
  
'The Jyouken still can target the chakra circulatory system and internal organs, bypassing the ways any ninja has trained to absorb blows, but I had to hit you hard, or you would have tried something." He said the words with as much softness as he could manage, trying to imply no malice.  
  
"Ha," Shiren chuckled painfully. "Probably right. Well, I guess you win."  
  
"I guess I do." Neji replied, placing Shiren down on the rooftop, and sitting across from her. "You are much more talented than I expected of any genin though. Thunder and Lightning Strike?"  
  
Shiren's eyes went wide, and she scowled, brows furrowing. "How do you know about that?"  
  
"Xi killed a jounin with it." Neji said quietly.  
  
"Oh." Was all Shiren replied with. "I'm not good enough to use it yet, though I keep trying. Of course, no one will actually teach a genin how to use a jounin level lethal jutsu." She shrugged.  
  
Neji nodded at that. "Can you walk?" He asked.  
  
"I suppose." Shiren said. "Though I'd appreciate it if I didn't have to jump down from this roof right about now."  
  
"There is a trapdoor." Neji said without much inflection. "The librarians installed it after too many ninja kept fighting up here."  
  
"Really?" Shiren laughed quietly. "That makes it easier anyway. All right, let's go."  
  
The walked over to the trapdoor, Neji moderated his pace to Shiren's, which meant that it took a long time to get out of the building. The librarians gave them the usually stares, which caused Shiren to smile in amusement and Neji to ignore them callously.  
  
"So, what did you do to Gosain?" Shiren asked openly as they started to walk back through Konoha. "He must be pretty hurt to not pursue, he's a dogged fellow."  
  
Shiren's remark seemed knowing, and Neji wondered about the relationship between the two cloud ninja. "I closed most of the tenkentsu on his legs. It will be a while before he can stand and walk, much less follow us. Were you worried?"  
  
"A little." She admitted. "They do say dragon ninja are killers, and Gosain fights pretty all out sometimes.  
  
"Do you know him well?" Neji asked, trying to sort things out.  
  
"Not really. He's got a reputation you see," Shiren replied. "But if you want to know about the two of us you should probably ask Xi, since I'd rather not talk about it, and neither would he, but you have the right to know."  
  
It was an unusual thing to say, to tell someone to ask another about your secrets, and Neji, though he knew he should probably let it lie, couldn't resist inquiring. "Is it important enough for that, or should I just not ask?"  
  
At that Shiren gave him a tired smile, and revealed something darker beneath her midnight blue eyes. "No, ask him, he'll expect it. Besides, we'll be asking him about you in return."  
  
That was not the way things were done in Konoha. Genin did not ask their sensei about the other members of their team, but Neji could tell from Shiren's words that this sort of thing was more common in Lightning. It made him uncomfortable, since he had been unable to tell what Xi thought of him. "I see," Was all he said. They walked the rest of the way back to the field in silence.  
  
Gosain was lying against a tree trunk when they arrived, and Xi was standing next to him. "So, Shiren? He got you too?" The other cloud ninja asked.  
  
"Yeah, hits damn hard this guy does." She joked.  
  
"I should have known you three would cost me another lecture before that witch of a Hokage." Xi told them without amusement. "In the future, don't fight each other within the boundaries of Konoha, it's making the Leaf ninja nervous. In any case, I've arranged guest rooms for Gosain and Shiren for tonight, and had our provisions sent there. Make sure you're ready to go at dawn. For the rest, Neji, it's in your hands."  
  
"Mine?" Neji asked coldly. Xi hardly ever gave him things to do.  
  
"It's you team for the chuunin exam, not mine, I'm simply acting as the sponsoring jounin. I'll command while we're in Waterfall country, but for the rest, you'd better lead your own team." The dragon ninja ordered.  
  
Neji nodded. He turned to Shiren and Gosain. How to lead them? He had ideas, but he knew this would be different than what he'd done before. Certainly he'd led Rock Lee and Tenten, but they'd so outclassed everything they'd been up against it had hardly mattered. Besides, Lee had rarely acted as part of his own team, and Tenten had simply mirrored him easily. This would be far more difficult. Gosain will probably take my orders, but only if I don't slip up, he's experienced, and Shiren... Neji wasn't really sure what he thought of Shiren yet. Well, there's an obvious first step. "Since you're traveling, I suppose I should treat you to dinner. Come to the Hyuuga residence, my family's good for at least that much." He managed without too much bitterness.  
  
Xi gave Neji an unusual look, and one of his customary half-smiles. Gosain said the words for him though. "Lightning ninja in the Hyuuga household." He chuckled, a deep and mirthless sound, as from one who never truly laughs happily. "Who would have thought that?" 


	13. Nighttime Tales

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: More stuff with new characters, that's about all. Thanks to all reviewers, and I hope to hear from people about what they think of Gosain and Shiren.  
  
Nighttime Tales  
  
It was a very strange meal. Neji prevailed upon his family without warning, springing that he had guests for dinner upon his branch family relatives without any notice. "Xi?" They had asked in disgust, and when Neji had given the answer there had been even more indignation.  
  
So, in the smallest dining room of the smallest annex of the Hyuuga estate, a room not even being heated with so many Hyuuga's out on missions, Neji was given to treat a meal to his new teammates.  
  
"My apologies." He began when the shouting was over. Shouting that Gosian had reacted to with utter contempt, and a refusal to leave his weapon behind, and that Shiren had utterly ignored, acting as if Neji was the only person present. "I expected something like this, but I cannot offer anything else. My money is almost entirely given into the family's pool." It was a cold apology, filled with the old angers at everything Hyuuga, a name Neji was glad he did not officially share anymore. "Had I the funds, I would have gone somewhere else."  
  
"Everyone makes sacrifices." Shiren told him quietly. "Especially ninja."  
  
"Heh. At least the food is good," Gosian told Neji once the meal had begun. "That can make up for anything else, especially since I'm not paying." That last was hardly a remark made in fun, and Neji wondered even further about this ninja. He knew now he would have to ask Xi.  
  
There was little conversation during dinner, since they were hardly the most talkative of ninja, and the chilly atmosphere was not encouraging. Still, Neji felt he must make some effort to associate with his team members as their leader, so he discussed the only thing he ever felt comfortable discussing, ninja business. "Have either of you been to Hidden Stone before?" He asked them when the meal was over.  
  
"Ah." Gosian responded. "Three times. All for the exam."  
  
"What should we expect then?"  
  
"Heh." Gosian shrugged, a weighty motion under the chains beneath his torso, chains that he continued to wear hidden even while eating. "Things have changed, no? The Stone ninja are stoic people, living up there in the mountains. They don't talk much and don't make a lot of enemies quickly. They're strong on defense, nobody can root them out of their mountain holds, and they don't care too much for the rest of the world, so they don't have a lot of missing-nins. Real tough though, don't give up easily. I'd gather that this exam will be real reserved, as little spectacle as possible, especially since it's the winter one, and with what happened in Konoha last time. The winter is the worst part, it makes this exam really dangerous, snow and ice and blizzards. Ninja freeze by the dozen during the survival stage, and the examiners have to go out and haul them back before the cold kills them. Very few teams ever get through that during the winter. I think the record for the past fifty times is five. Most years it's only two or three. You have mountain experience Neji?"  
  
"No." He replied.  
  
"Neither do I." Shiren added.  
  
"That makes it real hard. See, if you get stuck out in the second stage without knowing how the weather works you'll never build up enough strength to succeed after that. Almost all teams that get by that stage do so in less than a day." Gosain said sagely. "It's messy."  
  
"I see." Neji replied, already considering what this would mean. He had not considered the cold previously, but now he knew it would be an enemy. And I do not know any fire element jutsus to produce heat. That makes it even more difficult. "Well. I will consider that carefully."  
  
"See that you do," Gosain replied stonily. "I'm not going to haul your carcass around a mountain side."  
  
"If we perform correctly it should not be a problem." Neji said with certainty. "This team is sufficiently talented to deal with any genin group I have yet encountered." That was Neji's honest assessment. Indeed, he felt he could likely defeat almost any team of three genin by himself. The mountains will be more of a threat to us than the ninja. "Beyond that, I suppose I release you to your rooms, since morning will come early." He stood up, ending the meal.  
  
The rooms that had been officially allotted to the lightning ninja were little more than lofts in one of Konoha's taverns. Feeling that this was improper given the large space available at the Hyuuga estate, Neji had arranged for the team to remain there. He had justified it by saying they should be within reach of each other. Of course, the rooms his family arranged were likely the worst available, so Neji offered his own room if either of the ninja wished to use it. It was small and sparse, but likely more comfortable and warmer. Shiren declined politely and modestly, saying she was content with whatever was offered. Gosain took Neji up on it. He gave Neji a grim smile. "Don't give up comforts so easily, Neji." The older ninja told him. "There's few enough of them in life."  
  
That attitude was completely different from Neji's own. He had made the offer to make up for the lack of respect his family had shown, as duty demanded, not out of any kindness. Still, he would suffer if duty called for it. Would Gosain not?  
  
Neji therefore slept in the small guest room next to Shiren's, in the cold and on a hard floor. He found it impossible to sleep, not from discomfort, since sleeping in the trees with Xi had been far worse, but simply from the strangeness of it. I feel like a foreigner in my own home, he thought. Beyond that he wondered, is this place really my home?  
  
The dragon ninja ended up walking the halls of the estate, and eventually out into the garden. The night was cold, and the air sparkled with hints of frost. Winter was about to descend in earnest upon Konoha. It must already have blanketed Stone, Neji realized, up there in the Mountains. Gai had put them through survival training in the snow before, a terrible time. Neither Rock Lee nor I were pleased with the patient conservation of energy required by the cold. Yet, there are ninja who thrive in the snow. It was disturbing to consider.  
  
Then Neji sensed an unknown presence behind him.  
  
The Byakugan came up in an instant, turning the night away and revealing everything around him, and Neji was already rolling and reaching for his weapons. Then he recognized the intruder. "Xi." He hissed.  
  
"Getting quicker." The dragon ninja said coldly as he separated from the darkness. "But not quick enough. I could have let loose a lethal attack easily before you were ready to avoid it."  
  
"You didn't come here to debate the finer points of my skills Xi." Neji retorted, somewhat angry.  
  
"I didn't." The older ninja responded. "I came here because I suspected you'd be looking for me, and morning comes early enough that neither of us have the time to waste forsaking whatever sleep we can achieve."  
  
Suspected I'd be looking for him? Neji turned the words over in his mind. Then he had it, remembering what Shiren had told him earlier that day. "About my companions." He affirmed, and Xi nodded. But was it really to save time as you say? Neji wondered. Or do you not wish me to learn whatever it is you do at night? Well, it doesn't matter now. "I do have questions."  
  
"Of course, and I will give you access to what I know, as I did the same for them." The other ninja replied, emotionless.  
  
"Why do you do things this way?" Neji asked suddenly. "Why this forced sharing of secrets? It seems a way to destroy friendships."  
  
"A difference of philosophy." Xi replied, still emotionless. "Konoha wishes its ninja teams to be united by bonds of friendship. Cloud Village wishes to insure fighting trust. For us it is made sure you know all about the abilities of your teammates, so that you can react to their strengths and weaknesses and not be surprised in battle. Friendship is considered unimportant." Xi's voice was toneless, hiding his feelings completely. Neji could not tell which way the dragon ninja thought was better. Does he honestly not care?  
  
"I see." Neji looked at Xi's closed face. "So, do I ask questions?"  
  
"If you have something specific, but I suspect you wish to know the history of those two more than anything else. I will tell you what I know, they rest you will have to ask yourself. Now, who to start with, Shiren or Gosain?" Xi asked.  
  
"Gosain."  
  
Xi's face betrayed a tiny expression that this was the answer he had anticipated. "Very well, I will explain the unfortunate history of Kabure Gosain, called by some The Cursed Genin."  
  
The Cursed Genin? Neji was surprised. He settled himself down on a bench, and listened to Xi's steady and low explanation. The words had little added to them, a bland history, and one that told facts only, and forced Neji to interpret the words to form his opinion of the older genin.  
  
"Kabure Gosain was born to unimportant parents, his father a chuunin and his mother a metalworker's daughter. His father died during the war with Konoha when he was six years old. Gosain had already begun the first stages of ninja schooling, but this dedicated him firmly to the path, though he bears Konoha no grudge now. He graduated the Lightning academy at age twelve, with no special skills. The jounin he was assigned to initially is unimportant, save that he allowed Gosain to begin learning the Chain fighting style of Lightning that he still uses." Xi paused here, and after this his voice grew darker, as the story grew more important, and more terrible.  
  
"He was three months a ninja when, on a C rank mission that was clearly misclassified, Gosain's team fought with other ninja. His two genin teammates were killed, and the jounin seriously wounded so that he was bedridden for months. Gosain suffered minor injuries. He was reassigned to another team and another jounin. That team too would suffer great danger. Their jounin died on a mission with them, assassinated by another ninja, and one of his companions was permanently crippled. The other gave up being a ninja after that. He was assigned to a third team, and eventually went to his first chuunin exam, in Konoha. In the second stage both his companions died, slain by predators while under the influence of enemy genjutsu. He survived the dangers of the area on his own until the examiners picked him up once time expired." The litany had by now begun to bear down on Neji, as he saw what had happened to Gosain. To have his team killed again, and again. How did he bear up to that? But Xi's tale continued.  
  
"Following the first Chuunin exam Gosain was placed in a chuunin led platoon. Again disaster would strike soon, and repeatedly. Gosain would serve in four different platoons for a year and a half. Out of sixteen different ninja, only four remain as ninja today. I should stress now that none of these loses were Gosain's fault. Indeed, his own determination to keep fighting against all odds is likely the only reason he is still alive. He went to several additional chuunin exams, and brought back at least one seriously wounded comrade each time. Twice he managed to reach the finals, both times in Stone. The first time he did so he literally dragged his teammates on snow-sleds to the objective, and collapsed across the threshold. In the final matches he hadn't even recovered from frostbite and hypothermia enough to grip his pole. The second time went better, but he lost his first match to an extremely skilled Mist ninja, and was not awarded chuunin rank. It has been a year and a half since then. Gosain has drifted from platoon to platoon, performing whatever missions he can get on, and trying to find a team willing to take him to the chuunin exam. However, no one wishes to serve with him, though he is among the most skilled genins Lightning has ever had."  
  
Xi stopped again, letting Neji assimilate all that he had said. When he continued, not waiting or encouraging any response from Neji, it was in a somewhat more hopeful tone. "Gosain took my offer to join you in the Chuunin exam because he was desperate. He has to become a chuunin if he hopes to be a member on any missions. He has the skill certainly, only his leadership is questionable. I do not say that he is a bad leader, but only that he has been in too many terrible situations. He is somewhat like me in that fashion, he has learned to depend upon himself, to not operate as part of a group, since the group always dies. He will except orders, but remain detached, and form his own contingency plans. He fights with absolute determination, and has defeated many opponents by his willingness to go all out and force the issue. His chain style is powerful, a versatile mid ranged effect, his strengths much the same as most ninjutsu users. I believe that is all."  
  
When Xi stopped speaking Neji sat quietly for a long time. Cursed huh? I believed so long that fate was absolute, but is such a thing fate? That a man's companions should always die? This has nothing to do with his ability, or his decisions. Neji had himself sensed the Gosain was competent if he was anything, a man of little brilliance but very few mistakes. Everything he knew said such a ninja should be successful, if not notable. If this is a fate, it is one to fight against, for it is not only unfair, but also pointless. Neji resolved that he would not become part of Gosain's list of fallen comrades. He would not give this ninja another reason to have to force himself on everyday, shouldering the weight of the lost. Neji was far more impressed with Gosain now, to learn that the older ninja had continued to struggle even after such terrible things. He did not himself know if he could have endured something like that. It also explained Gosain's gruff exterior, and his unwillingness to easily give opportunities up. He has had far too much taken away to make willing sacrifices easily anymore. "A harsh past." Neji told Xi finally. "But there is obviously much to be gained from his experience, however harsh, and it certainly gives him a reason to work with me."  
  
"Indeed." Xi muttered. He looked Neji in the eye, under the cold starlight. "You have more questions though. Gosain is less curious than the other, isn't he? It is Shiren who truly confuses you?"  
  
"Any older ninja who had not become a chuunin might have taken up your offer, Xi, if he felt it a true chance." Neji replied knowingly. "She is not a older ninja, so why is she here?" Those were the reasons Neji gave to satisfy the other dragon ninja, but not the true puzzle he found himself contemplating. Shiren was unusual, she reminded Neji of Tenten, but more than that, she seemed very different from most ninja he had encountered. Her goal is not something to be attained as a ninja. It is being a ninja. That was how Neji thought of it.  
  
"Senirai Shiren," Xi began, and this time his voice was more involved. While his story of Gosain had been just a collection of facts, the story of Shiren was a true story, and a story that Xi not only knew, but also was part of. It seemed to make the other ninja uncomfortable, as if he disliked hinting at connections to others, and he always spoke so as to de-emphasize any mention of himself. "She was born fourteen years ago, her parents were both shinobi, at the time a pair of chuunin. Her father rose to the rank of Jounin after extensive service in the ANBU. I was therefore familiar with him. Both parents would die in the war between the Lightning and the Leaf, but they were not killed by warring ninja, but by Missing-nins who had deserted from both sides and taken to attacking vulnerable ninja to steal their jutsu. I was the one who killed the missing- nins, for I was a Hunter-nin then." With this Xi revealed a bit more about his past, even if it was something Neji already nominally knew. It also made Neji feel some sympathy for Shiren, growing up bereft of a parent was an unfortunate fate, as he knew well. "Shiren, then three years old, went to stay with an aunt. I was the one who delivered the news that her parents' killers had been slain, and though I spoke to her aunt, she overhead. On that very day she swore she would become a ninja."  
  
"Shiren enrolled in the ninja academy at the age of four. However, after the war with Konoha concluded, chaos took Lightning. Factions were formed and even the youngest students were conscripted for a period in those terrible battles. Shiren's aunt died then. She was among a small group of students that we hunter-nins, when we returned amid the chaos, secreted away. However, those children were marked thereafter by several factions as 'our friends.' When we failed to kill the one responsible for the entire affair those children were unofficially outcast to punish us." It was blatantly obvious to Neji that Xi was holding something back here, more obvious than anything the dragon ninja had ever said before. Something happened during those days in Lightning, something that still matters even now. He had no idea what is was, but Neji knew this was the reason Xi traveled alone for eight years, and why he was serving with Konoha and not cloud now. "Therefore," Xi continued. "Shiren, despite her talent and fervor to learn, has been offered little opportunity. She has mostly taught herself, and managed to graduate from the ninja academy at the age of eleven. However, she was not placed on an official team, but shuffled as a substitute from team to team to fill in for members temporarily. No jounin has instructed her, yet she has mastered many of Cloud's most potent ranged techniques in spite of that, and established excellent chakra control capabilities."  
  
Here Neji felt the urge to interject, but Xi held up his hand. "I know what you are thinking Neji. Yes, Shiren has the potential to be a dragon ninja. Her total chakra potential is at a high level, and her control skills can be developed to at least match mine in time. Indeed, for some time I had considered her a potential successor when the time came, and I have kept in contact with her for that reason. This was perhaps a mistake on my part." Xi said sadly. "Shiren looks up to me as she does few other high-ranking ninja, and has tried to convince me to train her, even by seeking to learn Thunder and Lightning Strike. However, I did not train her, for all the reasons I have given before. Still she was willing to come on this mission. This will be the fist time she has ever had a true team, and she will likely look up to you, since she wishes to be a dragon ninja. Her ranged techniques complement your close combat abilities well, and her temperament is surprisingly accepting, she tries to put a good face on things and not dwell on the past. Shiren's strength is greater than Gosain's as you have certainly noticed; she is likely ready to become a chuunin herself."  
  
Neji silently agreed with the dragon ninja on both those points, for Shiren had indeed impressed him more than many genin. Everything he had just learned about her was hardly a solid explanation. Her story was sad and tormented; something he was beginning to think was common among ninja. Still, she seems ready to face what comes. A sudden curiosity seized Neji, and he felt he had to ask Xi, if nothing else to observe the other ninja's reaction. "Since you are now training me, will you train Shiren as well?" He asked seriously.  
  
Xi looked taken aback, as if he had not anticipated the question. He scowled. "I will make my own decisions on such things. They do not concern you."  
  
The reply angered Neji, but he could think of no reason for it, and so said nothing further. He moved back to the puzzling character of Shiren. What Xi had said revealed many things about her, but Neji was not sure how they shaped the female ninja he had fought with during the day. She wants to be a dragon ninja that was something of an explanation. But why? Neji did not really understand that much yet. Certainly she might admire Xi, but that's hardly a reason to take up this bloody path. Shiren is not an avenger like Uchiha Sasuke, or a ninja trying to prove a point like Rock Lee. Maybe she feels that to be a ninja she has to be a dragon ninja, He reasoned, but could not complete the thought any further. It was something to trouble him. He knew that he would eventually have to ask her.  
  
"Is that all?" Neji said to Xi, shifting the conversation back on course. "For now yes." The other ninja answered, refusing to say more even if there was something to tell. "Get some sleep Neji, you will need it." With that Xi was gone, vanishing back into the woods of Konoha. 


	14. The Chill Spray

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: So, new chapter. It's taken a while for this to get up because I've been real busy with schoolwork and some other stuff, and because the login was down all of yesterday. Still this is a long chapter, with traveling and some implications, and I hope some good character development.  
  
For the nice reviewers: Kurisuteru-chan: thanks for the review!  
  
Orlha: yeah, aren't they all troubled, and it seems that all the happy characters, Sakura, Kiba, Shino, get lesser roles. Oh well, it makes things interesting.  
  
The Chill Spray  
  
There is no official road to Hidden Waterfall, as there is no official road to any hidden village, but in those craggy ravines of the north coast, hidden waterfall is held more secure than any other village. There are no roads, either pointed toward Konoha, or the village of Stone to the west. Hidden Waterfall is an isolated fortress behind the wall of its namesake, protected from the rest of the ninja world.  
  
So, it was only with an excuse of official business that Xi and Neji's team traveled there. That business was the business of Cloud and Leaf, both sending common alert messages. Neither Village was allied with Waterfall, but neither were they enemies. As such they shared the notice of the Bingo book. The Hokage and Raikage had sent messages to Water, to update the listing. The most recent additions that the four sound ninja noted as being followers of Orochimaru were dead, though there were other pieces of data to be included. Of course, the mission was a thinly veiled spy mission, but both villages accepted it, knowing that ninja would always spy.  
  
The road to Waterfall was lengthy, and took several days. It was cold now, winter had descended in force, and across the border water froze at night, covering the ground with ice in many places. The four travelers wore heavy winter clothes, despite the limitations it imposed on their mobility. They did not hurry, and so passed the time on the road only slowly. There was little to discuss between them.  
  
At one point, Gosain asked Neji about the Sound attack on Konoha. "It is rumored causalities were heavy." He said. "Yet Konoha has still undertaken almost as many missions as before. Are things really so well?"  
  
"Do you expect an answer to that?" Neji replied stonily.  
  
"Not truly." Gosain answered. "It is bothersome though, I would have hoped for more missions in this past summer. Had there been more call for them I could certainly have found a team."  
  
"Things remain as they were." Neji replied. "Konoha is stronger than the Sound could have possibly imagined." That much, at least, was the truth, and Neji felt no harm in saying it.  
  
"What are the Sound like?" Shiren asked Neji a moment later. "You have seen them fight, correct? They neighbor us as well, so I was wondering about that country's ninja." She was curious, but also serious.  
  
Neji debated for a moment how to respond, since he had only fought the Sound once, and that was Kidomaru. Still, he had heard much about them, and felt that it would not hurt to tell Shiren. He opened his mouth to speak-.  
  
"There is no more Village of Sound." Xi said levelly from in front of the trio. "I destroyed it."  
  
"What?" Shiren and Gosain gasped in unison.  
  
"Orochimaru and some few of his servants still live, but they are nothing more than powerful missing-nins yet. The strength he gathered together was dispersed, killed in Konoha, or in the north by me." Xi answered. "The Sound ninja were weak, relying on forbidden powers and cheap trick jutsu. There are greater problems in the world now."  
  
It was an unusual speech from the dragon ninja, and even Neji was taken aback. They walked some distance further in silence, and spoke nothing important for the rest of the day.  
  
Due to the cold they spent the night in a village inn, though Xi disappeared early in the evening and none of the other ninja saw him until morning.  
  
"Does he do this often?" Shiren asked Neji during dinner.  
  
"Ah."  
  
"What does it matter Shiren?" Gosain interjected harshly. "The man's strange, all jounin are, and he's above even that. Let him do what he wants."  
  
"It is not good that Xi abandons us so easily." Shiren replied quietly. "I dread the idea of anything that he fears."  
  
"Leave off Shiren." Gosain told her. "It's his own business." He stood up, meal finished.  
  
"Where are you going?" Neji asked.  
  
Gosain gave him a cold look, as if the question wasn't warranted. "Just upstairs. I need to shake up the chains, keep'em conditioned and all."  
  
"Ah." Neji replied, not at all chastised. I have to lead this team after all. "Fine, we'll see you later."  
  
With Gosain gone, Shiren and Neji were left at the table.  
  
"That man spends more time with those chains of his, I swear." Shiren muttered, exasperated.  
  
"His whole fighting style is oriented around them." Neji replied. "It makes sense to be concerned for your weapons."  
  
"Perhaps," Shiren said. "Still, it makes it awfully hard to do any practicing, since Xi's never around and Gosain devotes all his time to pieces of metal."  
  
"Surely you can train yourself Shiren." Neji said simply. "It is something all ninja do."  
  
"There's only so many times you can throw things at sticks before there's no difference though." She told him. "It really helps to have a moving target."  
  
"Ah." Neji responded, recalling Tenten had once said something rather similar. "Well, I suppose there is some time this evening. If you think it important, I will practice with you."  
  
"I was hoping you'd say that." She smiled.  
  
The two ninja went up to the roof of the inn, and with the cold wind whipping around them; they began what would become a nightly ritual throughout the journey. Occasionally Gosain would join them in these evening sessions, and when they camped in the wilderness Xi would watch, but for the most part it was Neji and Shiren, sole opponents.  
  
They focused mostly on taijutsu, both ranged and close combat. Neji's Jyouken abilities gave him an advantage in close, but Shiren had far greater weapon skill. Though Neji could block most of her attacks easily, he could not penetrate her guard in return. Though he held the advantage, she proved to be a skilled opponent. Shiren would fight with a kunai in each hand, and Neji with his nekode. It was difficult at first, learning to fight with weapons, but he gradually became able to use all his Jyouken abilities even while wearing the blades. The most important aspect of these practices for both ninja was increasing their internal chakra control, to be able to move with precision and accuracy in all aspects of their motion, so that they could react faster and hit harder than another ninja.  
  
Each night Neji and Shiren came down sweating and tired, to collapse into their pallets. Gosain didn't comment on it much, and Xi said absolutely nothing, not that he spent the night with the three anyway.  
  
* * *  
  
Four days out from Konoha they crossed the border into Waterfall country. The northern hill road that they walked was a winding dirt track, but it marked a level path through the ravines, and even had bridges in some places. This road did not lead to Hidden Waterfall, but it would take the ninja close enough, and to pass openly through Waterfall country they would have to take the road.  
  
"We will be watched constantly from this point on." Xi told the three genin. "Since I am with you, probably by a full team of ANBU." He sighed. "The Waterfall ANBU are not as talented as those of the Five Great Countries, but they are not to be trifled with either. In two days we will leave the road, from there we should reach Hidden Waterfall at midday. When we get there we will spend only a single evening in the village, and you will follow my orders exactly. It is a week past Waterfall to Hidden Stone, and likely through snow, so we must make sure not to be delayed here."  
  
The other three nodded, and spent a good deal of time stealing glances into the trees, both those now leafless, and the busy pines that could hide any ninja. They had not yet been snowed upon, but there were patches hidden away from the sun in this country, and it seemed likely that it would snow. They had long since donned ninja winter gear, with boots instead of sandals, and fur-lined versions of all their garments. Gosain continued to wear his chains constantly, though Neji thought they must have been freezing. He had fastened his cap down so that it protected his head, and Shiren wore an insulated headband under her forehead protector to protect her ears. Even Gosain had covered his head with several wrapped bandanas. Xi, however, did not cover any part of his head, nor did he wear thin gloves to cut the wind chill as the others did; yet he did not seem cold. In fact, he appeared far warmer than any of the three Genin, especially on cold nights in the scarcely heated inns on this barren road. Is he burning chakra? Neji had wondered at first, but his Byakugan would have noticed something of that nature. There was something else keeping Xi warm, for he was obvious truly not cold, and not just denying the grip of the elements. It was yet another mystery about the man.  
  
The sun was pale and wan against a backdrop of icy clouds and the snow that had fallen the night before when they entered Hidden Waterfall.  
  
The village of Hidden Waterfall rests atop a high barren mesa of gray stone, carved by wind and rain for endless ages. On three sides the cliffs fall off nearly vertical, and water from the heavy rains washes down them in ruthless cutting streams and falls. No road leads up the slightly more passable forth side, indeed all things are brought into the village by elevators, but on the fourth side a skilled person can climb the beaten and rocky outcrops with care, to reach the walls at the top that demarcate the ninja village. Hidden Waterfall cannot be attacked from without, it has been tried, but even the Hidden Stone shinobi, with their potent earth techniques, could not get up those invincible cliffs as the waterfall ninja turned the streams into cutting scythes against them, and wiped their ninja off the side. That was the only attempt by Hidden Stone to reclaim their colony, and none have ever attacked Hidden Waterfall since.  
  
Another village might have grown soft in its security, like Hidden Rain had in some ways, but not this place. Atop that mesa was a world of howling wind, cutting rain, and an endless cold eternity of rock and spray that slashed at the ninja. It was a terrible place, and bred strong ninja who harnessed many elements for their methods.  
  
Snow blanketed the rough rocks now, as the four ninja ascended what passed for a trail up that hillside. Any non-ninja could have taken an elevator up the cliffs, but this would not due for them, they would have to make the long and vulnerable approach.  
  
Snow was falling as they made that nerve-racking way. Xi leading, well ahead of the others, and the three genin following. This is madness! Thought Neji, Byakugan plainly revealed on his face. It was a necessary measure to find the path through the snow and spot hidden patches of ice. How can we climb this today! A single slip could mean death. He bore heavy chain about his waist, as Gosain had advocated tying themselves together with his weapons, and after taking a single look at the path, Neji had agreed. The chain-wielding ninja followed him, holding the center and moving with steady steps. Shiren brought up the rear, shivering and grim.  
  
"Hurry Neji!" Gosain called, shouting over the wind. "The storm is getting worse, we need to get inside the walls!"  
  
Neji nodded, saving his words. He had thought as much, but did not have the older ninja's eye for storms. He carefully attempted to quicken his pace. It was nerve-racking, not just the snow, which Neji refused to let impede him, but the presence of watchful eyes before them. We are open targets out here. Neji could tell, with his enhanced vision he could see the Waterfall ninja watching on the walls above. With a single jutsu like Crashing Spray they could sweep us into an endless fall. It was difficult to endure, especially knowing that there was nothing to be done about it. How does Xi go on ahead? Neji was incredulous. The three genin were working together as best they could to support each other and advance over the terrible terrain, but Xi went on alone at a pace well above their own. How? He does not have my vision, what guides him?  
  
Gritting his teeth, Neji advanced. They crossed over frozen bridges of ice between rocks, holding to the slick substance using their chakra desperately. Neji and Shiren were able to manage the constant adjustments needed to prevent slipping, but Gosain had difficultly. He slipped and fell once, jerking the others to their knees, and forcing them to pull him back up to the pathway with his chain. Yet Neji did not begrudge the older ninja, especially when they came to an un-bridged gap and the man used his chains to anchor a stable passage they could run across. Gosain pivoted his chakra down the chains and let them pull him across behind them. Everyone's skills were needed, Neji's vision, Shiren's skill to throw out anchoring points or melt away ice with lightning, and Gosain's strength. To think that this is only a taste of the mountains of Stone, Neji recalled Gosain's words before they had begun the trek. What will this exam be like?  
  
Xi reached the walls over a half hour before the trio could stagger in. He seemed perfectly fine, not cold or tired as they were. There is little snow on him, Neji noted, as if it were melting off. Indeed, Xi's skin and hair lacked the presence of snow entirely. The dragon ninja nodded when the team arrived. "You seem to have made it without mishap." He told them. "I have shown the Waterfall ninja our papers, they will allow us in."  
  
They passed through the high stone walls and into the hidden village. Immediately things were better, the wind howled less, and the snow did not crowd about them so terribly. Still, it was cold and wet and unpleasant. If anything, the atmosphere would get worse. The streets seemed deserted save for Waterfall ninja standing guard at various points. They wore their forehead protectors openly, and seemed grim in their sturdy winter gear. Gear, Neji saw, that was far better against water than either he or the Cloud ninja possessed. Waterfall ninja and even ANBU walked the streets. They glared viscously at their visitors. The buildings were low and simple, grim sturdy places that seemed far less welcoming than those of Konoha.  
  
Xi walked with them for a short while. Then he turned around and faced the three. "So, welcome to Hidden Waterfall. Be very careful here, if they attack us there is no possible escape short of flight." Neji caught something behind those words, and realized that they were deliberately chosen. If the worst happens, perhaps we could fly from here, he realized, remembering the dragons. "Follow my orders exactly, this is not like visiting a village for a chuunin exam, we are openly here as spies, and everyone knows that." He turned to each ninja in turn, giving out orders. "Gosain, find a place for us to stay, someplace out of the way. Shiren, go about town and analyze any possible escape routes, get me a count of how many ninja are moving about if you can. Neji, you are supposed to bring back a report on the town, so wander about and make your assessments, but avoid Shiren, and stay out of the way of any ANBU. For me, I have to go see Naname Dyire, the head ninja, about our official business. We meet back here one hour after night falls."  
  
The three genin nodded, to cold to bother speaking.  
  
All that long afternoon Neji walked about Hidden Waterfall, counting ninja, genin, chuunin, jounin, ANBU, as best he could estimate. He examined the walls and other defenses, and tried to guess how many people were living in the village overall. It was challenging, the wind and snow made it difficult to see what was going on or keep everything straight, but not impossible. The Byakugan was a tremendous aid to Neji; the ability to see through structures, people, and snow made it difficult to keep anything secret from his vision. The smaller size and compact nature of Hidden Waterfall also aided his search. The village was compressed into an area not more than a fourth that of Konoha's even though Neji sensed that this village probably had at least half as many ninja as Konoha possessed prior to the losses in the chuunin exam. I did not know one of the lesser countries had so many ninja. Of course, there were many genin among their numbers, but also a large number of chuunin. Jounin were rare, but then the difference between a jounin and a chuunin could be difficult to discern. Still, Neji could sense the talent these ninja possessed, the ANBU that trailed him all afternoon was able to slip out of Neji's sight regularly, even avoiding the Byakugan's all seeing gaze.  
  
Then came one moment that Neji had not expected, and as moment where he finally felt true fear in the village of Waterfall. He saw a ninja walking the streets, a genin, wearing a one-piece blue parka, a ninja with hair streaked by aquamarine and bearing red eyes. The Mizuho bloodline! Neji realized suddenly. It had just fallen dark, but enough light came from the street lamps to allow the other ninja to see. Neji dodged aside, hoping to turn a corner before being noticed.  
  
He was not so lucky. The other ninja saw him. "Stop, foreigner!" He yelled.  
  
Neji skidded to a halt in the snow, surrounded by the cold and his breath coming hard and fast. Does he know? He wondered. He was afraid of what would happen if he fought the man, knew it would mean death was likely. Neji feared no other ninja, but he remembered that water burning, the devilry of that terrifying technique, to violate everything the mind told him was possible. The Mizuho was no normal flame, it was some terrifying spectre designed to destroy ninja, a technique that Konoha would consider a forbidden jutsu, though Waterfall apparently did not mind. Neji feared no ninja, but surrounded and drenched from the snow, and in this cold and foreign darkness with no allies or escape, he feared the Mizuho.  
  
The other ninja approached him, and Neji saw that he was a match in age. This boy, he is no older than me, perhaps even younger, yet he is strong. The youth had a tremendous supply of chakra, and it burned in him red and furious, a twin color chakra to represent the terrible melding of elements he represented. The waterfall genin looked at him, and recognition and anger spread in his eyes. "You are the one." He said with a bone breaking voice that sounded as if it belonged to someone far older. "You slew my sensei, and my uncle, Ryukin." He let the words hang in the snowy street, and his eyes dared Neji to deny them.  
  
The dragon ninja would not, he would not shy away from that, even though Neji hated to recall it. "I did." He answered. "On a mission, we were opponents." He said those words to try to assure the genin that it was not personal, but Neji was sure that much was a lie. It had indeed been personal between him and Ryukin, and he suspected that this boy would not understand why his uncle had forced Neji to kill him.  
  
"Then you are my enemy." It seemed strange, this viscous voice coming from a happy-eyed youth, whose face was unlined with cares and who hair shot short and spiky into the air. But he was deadly serious. "I am Mizain Seve, and I will kill you."  
  
"Mizain is the clan of the Mizuho?" Neji asked, recalling that if battle was about to come he should gather as much information as possible before it came.  
  
"Yes." The genin snapped. His hands went to his kunai holster. "Who are you?"  
  
"Draci Neji," Was the answer given. "I am not here to fight you. There is no reason for me to kill you."  
  
"Ha!" Seve barked. "Kill me? In this snowstorm I will destroy you with a gesture."  
  
Shit! Neji recognized the threat as serious. He has enough chakra to ignite the snow, if he does that, there will be no escape. I should attack now, take him before he is ready, but I can't, I dare not strike the first blow, or my team will surely die. Neji made a snap decision, and leapt backwards.  
  
"Die!" Seve howled, and hurled his kunai through the space Neji had been occupying moments before. Finding Neji had moved he thrust his fists into the snow, and when he pulled them out, they were burning. Glowing balls of snow were held in his hands, and Neji saw shuriken buried between them. "I heard you could block almost anything from the chuunin who brought back word, but can you block flames?"  
  
With the Byakugan piercing the night, Neji revealed the chakra running through Seve. Strong, very strong, he has as much chakra as many chuunin, perhaps more, but his control is bad. Neji saw that Seve could not possibly react quickly. I can dodge his attacks for sure, and probably I could get in and rip him apart with back rake in a second, but I dare not do that. He was torn between the decision to fight back and the knowledge that he should not bring violence against the Waterfall. However, he could not just defend. Neji knew that much, there was no certain defense against the flames of Mizuho.  
  
There were no options, but suddenly Neji was struck by an idea. He reached down into the snow as well.  
  
Seve threw his flaming balls of snow, ice, and steel. Neji threw his own in return. I can see them, I can see them easily. The flames burned bright with chakra, and Neji could see and predict their flight path. He had practiced with Shiren, seeing missiles imbued with chakra. His own balls of snow took the projectiles and covered them.  
  
The shuriken were far heavier than any snowballs, so they continued on to Neji, but the flames on them were suddenly smothered with snow. If you had enough skill, you could simply ignite that too, Neji knew, but you don't have the control. The flames were quenched, and Neji slapped the missiles harmlessly aside with a casual ease.  
  
"No!" The genin shrieked. "You can't do that. Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" He screamed. "Then...then...just burn!"  
  
Seve's hands flashed through a series of seals, and Neji saw tremendous chakra gather in him.  
  
Bad! Neji wondered where to dodge. He leapt into the air, getting away from the snow covered ground, but there were no places free of snow now, and even the sky was filled with it. What to do? He wondered.  
  
A dark figure suddenly appeared behind Seve, and down chopped both sides of his neck. The waterfall ninja screamed and collapsed to the ground, even as he suffered repeated punches to the ribs.  
  
Neji recognized those ultra-quick blows, and beyond that he recognized their source after a moment. "Xi!" He called.  
  
Seve collapsed under the dragon ninja's merciless pounding. He grunted and collapsed after only a moment. "Stand up!" Xi barked, dragging the unfortunate to his feet by his collar. "You're good for nothing ANBU don't have the good sense to restrain you, so I will. Make another move and I'll break every bone in your hands." He turned Seve to face him.  
  
The genin looked into the frozen eyes of the dragon ninja and whimpered. There was no mercy or compassion there, not even acknowledgement as another human being. There was a mind that considered him something not even important enough to bother killing. Seve whimpered, and did not move or speak. "What has Waterfall come to, that genin attack visitors on the street, and even try to burn down the whole town? Go home, little Mizuho user, to whatever minders keep track of you, and leave the vows of vengeance until you understand the true deadliness of the world. I'm sure the ANBU watching all of this will have some choice words for you."  
  
Xi released the genin. Seve stood on his own, and turned back toward Neji. As if nothing had ever happened he glared at him. Staring at him, but not willing to fully meet the white eyes of the Byakugan, Seve made his declaration. "You're going to the Chuunin exam they said. Fine, I'll kill you there, when no one else is around to save you. I Mizain Seve guarantee it."  
  
"You can't possibly beat me as you are." Neji answered. "Until you learn to control your powers, you're nothing but a brat playing with a grown up's weapons. Once I leave this place, if you attack me, I will not hold back." It was a cold promise, for Neji hoped to dissuade Seve. I don't what this boy as my enemy; he's not on the same level at all. This is no war or mission, I don't need any grudge against him, I have plenty of my own.  
  
Still, the younger ninja just flashed a viscous look from those burning red eyes and stormed off into the snowing backdrop.  
  
Xi walked up to Neji a moment later. "I was worried something like this might happen. The ANBU trailing you should have intervened, but I guess they considered losing that Ryukin a serious enough affront. Still, commendable restraint on your part, better I should be the one to strike him than you."  
  
"Why were you there, Xi?" Neji asked in return.  
  
"Chance, really." The older ninja replied, not being mysterious. "That and the fact that flashes of flame are conspicuous in this sort of wind and snow."  
  
"Ah."  
  
"So." Xi asked. "Have you finished your scouting? We should get back to the meeting place so we can get out of this damnable wind. I swear, who would live up here?"  
  
"I'm finished, or close enough." Neji answered, slightly subdued considering what had just happened. I have another grudge now, and I've just made the chuunin exam more difficult. That boy, even if inexperienced, could cause all kinds of problems with his ability.  
  
"Neji," Xi said quietly as they walked back to their meeting place. "It's never good to make an enemy, but better a single genin than a whole village. Yet, keeping an enemy is worse than making one. That boy has the potential to be very strong, his parents and siblings share the strongest of inheritance of the Mizuho bloodline that has yet been recorded, its expected that one of them will be the first to rise to the Kage level from this village. If you meet him in the chuunin exam, kill him." Xi said nothing further.  
  
"Ah." Neji replied, feeling sick as he did so, but knowing that Xi was right. As horrible as it was, he was right.  
  
Then they met Gosain, and finally got out of the snow, warming both bodies and minds. In the morning they left Hidden Waterfall behind, but they were not truly alone, for seven teams of genin were following them. Among those genin were ninja that had taken he exam in Konoha, ninja that had taken the exam in Stone, and true rookies. Also among them was Mizain Seve. The mountains loomed furious in the distance before the mixed team of Draci Neji, but now there was also a threat behind them. 


	15. Step into the Mountains

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: So, its time to start in with the Chuunin exam. I've tried to be original and not repetitive with things, which will become more apparent as additional chapters are put up.  
  
Many thanks to all reviewers, I appreciate any comments I receive!  
  
Step into the Mountains  
  
It was snowing when they entered Hidden Stone, the village high up in the heights. The snow fell clear and powdery, to lie upon an already solid carpet of it. The snow had piled several feet up in the storms of the past few weeks, and in other places had reached even greater heights. Neji and Shiren had spent much of the trek marveling at it, having never seen the world turned into this blanket of white before, an utter carpet of frozen water coating the land. It had made progress hard, until Gosain had fashioned snowshoes for them. Xi continued to walk steadily without such aids, and he did not seem to sink in at all. More and more Neji was certain that the dragon ninja carried some device that provided him with this ability to defy the cold.  
  
All the week long journey Shiren and Neji had continued their practices, becoming quite familiar with each other's fighting styles and learning their capabilities intimately. Neji now felt he knew Shiren's abilities almost as well as he had known Tenten or Rock Lee's and he was also certain that they trusted each other. Of course, he had not been foolish, and had included Gosain in these sessions; indeed he had ordered the older ninja to instruct them in how to fight in the snow, figuring it would be a major disadvantage in what was to come. Learning those methods was difficult, especially trying to maneuver while wearing the cumbersome snowshoes, but Neji recognized that such training was essential if they were to win a fight against the Stone ninja up in the mountains.  
  
They reached Hidden Stone at midday, and Xi took over then. He went to the office of Tsuchikage, the leader of the village. They registered for the exam, and arranged for rooms, and then went to them, ignoring other ninja along the way.  
  
So many ninja. Neji saw in surprise. The Stone Village was not that large, nestled up in the mountains as it was, but there were ninja everywhere. There must be as many as were in Konoha during the exam, he decided. It was unpleasant to realize that this was more than Konoha now possessed. So many gone, and all these come here? Stone, Rain, Grass, Sand, Lightning, Mist, Neji recognized all these countries and more, though his was the only forehead protector graced with the crest of Konoha. There were no Waterfall ninja, but Neji knew they were coming. Perhaps the most dangerous ninja have not yet arrived, since that Mizuho user is not here yet. Then he amended that thought. No, the most dangerous ninja have already arrived; we are the most dangerous team.  
  
Xi steered them through stone deftly, taking back roads and alleys, knowing the outline of the village well. "What are we avoiding?" Neji asked him at one point.  
  
"We are avoiding my countrymen." Xi said sternly, voice cold as the snow that covered the ground. "It's best they not be given any time to realize that we are here."  
That remark effectively killed the conversation, for it was clear that all four ninja had reasons to conceal their presence from the rest of the group.  
  
They found their rooms, a small apartment with two bedrooms and a kitchen, designed for something of a prolonged stay. Mostly for Xi, Neji realized, since none of us will use this unless we make it through the second stage.  
  
The four ninja walked in and set their things down, quickly stripping off the soaking winter clothes and setting them to dry. Xi was not wet at all. "The three of you should stay here until tomorrow morning, when you report to the examination hall. Better that none of the ninja should see you."  
  
"What about our own intelligence?" Neji asked Xi.  
  
"Surely you don't need to scout out these ninja today. Simply arrive early tomorrow and inspect them as they arrive. You all know how this goes." The older ninja gave Neji a hard look. "I want to prevent the idea that you are a mixed team from getting out as long as possible Neji. If they find out that many of the jounin will instruct their genin to target your team."  
  
"I see." Neji replied to Xi's back as the older ninja left.  
  
The dragon ninja did not return that evening for dinner, or later. The three ate quietly and discussed what they expected one final time. "Each chuunin exam is different," Gosain went over it for perhaps the tenth time, but they were all just as serious as before. "Still, there is a set pattern. The first exam will involve some sort of test to judge our competence as a team and our nonviolent skills. The second exam will be survival based and designed to drastically reduce numbers, and the third exam is one on one matches in a tournament for the lords one month later. Things are harsher here than in Konoha, Neji, Shiren, remember that. There will be over a hundred genin participating I'm sure, and likely at least twenty will die, and probably a good deal more will be injured."  
  
"I will not set out to kill anyone." Neji told Gosain, making it very clear. "And I am certain neither of you will, but if we are attacked with deadly force I will answer as a dragon ninja."  
  
"Ah." The older genin replied. "I expected that. Don't think I won't fight with everything I have either, I need to become a chuunin here."  
  
Shiren nodded quietly at Neji, giving him and then Gosain a pleasant smile, making it clear that she was confident in the three of them. "Just a little walk in the snow, and hopefully nobody else gets hurt."  
  
They went to bed early, conscious that there would be little time between the first exam and the second, and already planning ahead toward that, knowing it would be likely the most difficult of the three for them.  
  
In the middle of the night Neji awoke, conscious of something crawling through the back of his mind, a strange sense of danger. He walked out of the room and into the kitchen.  
  
Xi was lying against the wall with a kunai in his hand, sleeping sitting up. His body was relaxed, but his face was not.  
  
The moment Neji stepped into the kitchen Xi's eyes opened and he saw him. Xi motioned with his head, beckoning Neji next to him. Looking at him, Neji saw that Xi seemed to be exhausted, something he had never seen the dragon ninja before. He sat down beside the man. "What?" He was sparing and quiet with his words, knowing that there was something important for Xi to say, something terribly important for him to even be here.  
  
"Neji, listen carefully." The dragon ninja's voice was hoarse and cold, tired. "This is not going to be as easy as I expected. There is something going on in this village, and I could not determine what it was. This will not be as bad as Orochimaru, but I think the Akatsuki have turned their eyes this way, and I am worried. Beyond that, Neji, when you go to the examination hall tomorrow you pass beyond my sight and ability to monitor until the second stage is completed. You will be on your own then, and your teammates lives in your hands, and I am certain someone is targeting those lives. Neji, try to stay clear of the Earth ninja, and beware of Waterfall. Very, very cautious of Waterfall."  
  
Xi motioned Neji away then, but took a deep breath and added a single sentence more. "Remember, always remember, that even in this you are a dragon ninja."  
  
Neji stood up completely then, and headed back toward his room. Xi was already asleep by the time he reached the door.  
  
When morning came the Dragon ninja was gone.  
  
Neji did not mention Xi's visit in the night, but instead led his team to the examination hall.  
  
* * *  
  
The mixed team was the very first to arrive at the examination hall. They woke up before dawn, and as the first rays of light peaked over the eastern peaks, Neji, Shiren and Gosain were already seated and waiting.  
  
The first of the chuunin who served as an examiner arrived about ten minutes later. He opened the locked door of the examination hall and then stepped back in shock, drawing a kunai. "Who are you and how the hell'd you get in here?" he barked at them.  
"Draci Neji." Neji answered him. "We're here to take the exam."  
  
"That still doesn't answer how you got in here." The chuunin replied.  
  
"Why should it matter?" Neji responded. "I don't have to tell you my secrets, and this wasn't a high security area or anything." There's no need for you to know that I picked the lock with a key made out of my chakra. I tried it just to see if I could, I'm still rather surprised that it worked.  
  
"Fine." The chuunin answered, moving over to one of the desks and picking up a clipboard. "If you're really who you say you are." He scanned down on the clipboard. "Draci Neji. From Konoha, ah, yes, that's got to be right. There's no other entry from Konoha. You're companions are?"  
  
"Kabure Gosain."  
  
"Senirai Shiren."  
  
"Yeah, you're on here." He muttered and looked at the clipboard again. "Ah, you're that team. I should have figured."  
  
"Is that meant to imply something?" Neji questioned darkly, eyes narrowing.  
  
"Not really, aside from the fact the your team mixes to hidden villages and is sponsored by the legendary Draci Xi who was listed as 'deceased' up until yesterday, and that the examiners gave us all a special briefing about how to deal with you, no it's not meant to imply anything at all." The Chuunin seemed ready to laugh mockingly in their faces, but he caught Neji's gaze, and thought better of it. "All right, you've arrived. Sit there then. I expect other ninja will be along in a minute."  
  
The three watched the chuunin go and sit over by his desk. The man was like most of the Stone ninja they'd seen so far, gruff, sturdy, and dark skinned. He looked quite strong, but wasn't particularly big, simply had the heritage of the mountain people. Neji turned back to watching the door. "Each of us is to keep a count, how many ninja, what village they come from, and mark out anyone who seems suspicious. We'll compare things once everyone has arrived."  
  
"Right." They said, agreeing with the plans that had been made the night before.  
  
So they waited, and watched the ninja teams arrive. They came from all the countries save the Leaf, more ninja than Neji had ever scene in one place before. The teams arrived slowly, some leaving their jounin outside the door, some coming without jounin to guide them, all assured and confident in their movements. If there were rookies, then someone had prepared them well. Stone ninja predominated, the harsh and mountain carved ninja that often seemed surprisingly kind underneath the skin. They were the most comfortable here, and did not shiver from the cold, but talked and laughed with their companions. Few other ninja were as well adjusted as they, and few others arrived early. Many of the Stone ninja stared long and hard at Neji's team, but none of them said anything, that was not their way.  
  
As the morning wore on others started to appear, Mist ninja and Rain ninja, with their grim faces and strange accoutrements. Grass ninja with their confident smiles and easygoing manner, and lightning ninja. The ninja who bore the bolt and cloud symbol of Hidden Cloud all gave baleful stares at Gosain and Shiren, and many looked at Neji as if they intended to kill him. Bravado, he decided, recognizing the true motions and body language as he always did. He saw the Lightning ninja look at Gosain and quiver. They are afraid, either of him or his reputation. These ninja, they will mock us and aggravate us, but they are not going to fight with us. Neji pushed them aside and wondered about something more disturbing. Where are the Waterfall ninja?  
  
Indeed, it was almost noon, and all the chuunin examiners had arrived, save only whoever was to direct the exam itself, and still not a single Waterfall ninja had arrived. There should be twenty-one, Neji recalled clearly. They will come, four teams that were defeated in the last exam, and three more beyond that. Dangerous ninja, but where are they, what are they planning?  
  
As the clock read ten minutes until noon, the Waterfall ninja appeared. They slammed the doors wide open, and seven teams of ninja, lined up in columns, marched into the examination hall as if they owned it. Neji glared at them, examining each one in turn. He remembered the faces of twelve, even if he knew nothing about them, and also recognized one more. Mizain Seve. The thought was grim and angry. Should we meet outside this hall I will have to kill him. Neji remembered what he had done to Ryukin; the technique was graven into his memory, his body, carved there by blades of chakra, though he had not dared to even practice it since that day. It was a technique so dangerous that he could barely contemplate it. Yet, should I meet that boy from Waterfall, I will have to use it again.  
  
The other eight could not be placed, but Neji could tell that they were older, strong. They are indeed planning something to arrive like this, but what is it?  
  
"So, that's everyone I imagine." Gosain muttered from Neji's right.  
  
"Ah." Neji and Shiren responded in unison.  
  
"So, how many?" Shiren began.  
  
Neji took up the numbers from that point on, reciting what they all had seen. "Eighty-one genin from Stone." He began, starting with that astounding number, more teams even than had come from the Leaf to take the exam in Konoha, though not by much. As Gosain and Shiren nodded to confirm it, he continued. "Nine ninja from Sand, Twelve ninja from Mist." Those countries were far away, most of their ninja would have gone to Konoha, but obviously a few had made the journey to take the exam in the cold snows. That choice could not be discounted. "No ninja from the Leaf, and forty-two from Cloud." That completed the five great shinobi countries, the Lightning ninja numbering second in presence to the Stone ninja, but still having only perhaps half the numbers. Of course, that did not include Neji's teammates. "Fifteen from Rain, twelve from Grass, and twenty-one from Waterfall. That plus us, one hundred and seventy four ninja in total." That was the completed count. Gosain and Shiren nodded their assent, confirming that they had the same numbers.  
  
"Quite a few." Gosain remarked. "Must because so many skipped out on Konoha the last time."  
  
"Perhaps." Neji said, not wanting to speculate on what that would mean. "Do you see anyone notable?" He asked the other two.  
  
"I don't know any of these Stone ninja, but one of the Cloud fellows is somebody I know. Yilosi Nemari," Gosain pointed to an extremely tall genin who stood in the corner. He carried, of all things, a long spear. "He's a dangerous fellow, didn't make chuunin for lack of victories last time, but for lack of restraint."  
  
"Can you beat him?" Neji asked, trying to measure this lightning ninja's strength.  
  
"Yeah," Gosain answered. "It'd be tough though."  
  
"I see. Shiren?"  
  
"There's a team of grass nins over by the far wall, they look strange, almost as if there are things growing out of them, and one of them has cruel eyes." She said cautiously, and with a dark touch.  
  
Neji looked over at them. Indeed, the Grass ninja were strange looking, different even from other Grass ninja he had seen, who were usually quite ordinary. The one who led them, he did either have something growing out of him, or he had attached thorns to his outfit somehow. A very strange technique, whatever it is. His eyes are viscous, and also lost, like my own were, or Gaara's. That did not bode well.  
  
"Also," Neji said, speaking on his own. "There is a Waterfall ninja, the one with aquamarine hair and red eyes, Mizain Seve." He told them quietly, making sure no nearby ninja could hear. "He has a very dangerous bloodline limit, the Mizuho."  
  
"Water fire?" Shiren asked. "How does that work?"  
  
"I'll explain later," Neji answered, as the Cloud ninja Gosain had indicated, Nemari, approached them.  
  
The tall genin had a cruel face, with scars on both cheeks, and anger seemed ever present in his eyes. "So, Gosain," He said mockingly, "Is this the best you could round up to get killed by your curse? An outcast and some moronic leaf ninja?"  
  
Gosain bit down hard, his hands clenched, but Neji stretched his arm over, restraining him. Then he stood up. "I'm the one who 'round up' these two." Neji said in his most derisive Hyuuga voice. "And that's enough from you. We are here to take the exam, not to squabble with the likes of you." He stared up in the Cloud ninja's eyes with his own pupil-less white spheres, and the man blanched.  
  
"The hell! You're a thrice damned Hyuuga!" The words rang clearly through the stadium. Heads turned, and Neji saw the both the Grass ninja Shiren had noticed and Seve had turned to stare at him. The Waterfall ninja's eyes were burning.  
  
Enough, I'll end this quickly, Neji decided. "Go and sit down, or I'll sit you down." He said.  
  
Nemari flashed him a look that would have sent young children screaming in terror, and made many older men blanch. He had the face of a true devil. "I'm not foolish enough to struggle with a Hyuuga now, besides, if you're with Gosain, you're sure to die without me having to do anything." He walked sedately back to his bench.  
  
Then it was noon.  
  
A flash of smoke from the front of the room where there were no benches, and the rest of the examiners appeared. They were stone ninja in brown uniforms, chuunins all, with sadistic grins. In front of them stood a smallish ninja woman, also in the garb of stone. She wore a ski mask and slim outfit that looked like it was for rock-climbing or some similar pursuits. She was also covered in snow, and laughing. "An amusing display." She said in a surprisingly pleasant voice. "But now everyone had better go sit down."  
  
Ninja dropped to their seats immediately. When one Stone ninja was two slow to move, she sent a kunai sailing over his head. "I expect my instructions to be followed rookies." She said, voice still pleasant and happy. "I am the first examiner of the Chuunin exam, Special Jounin Chi Kiri."  
  
Strange woman, Neji decided. Still, there are many talented ninja with that sort of falsely foolish exterior. He knew that very well.  
  
"We will now begin the first exam of this Chuunin exam. There are fifty-eight teams participating, so we have to be prompt." She smiled as she said it, but there was a strange sadness underneath the smile. "So, bring your applications to the examiners at the front if you haven't already. Then take your bench and stack it against the wall."  
  
"What? Against the wall?" Some ninja demanded.  
  
"Don't ask questions rookie!" Kiri shouted at him. "I gave an order, so follow it. Anyone who fails to follow my instructions in the future will be failed immediately. You're ninja, not school children! Move it!"  
  
Neji's team had already handed in their applications long ago, so they picked up the bench and brought it over to the wall without saying anything. This is strange, Neji thought. If we are putting the benches away this obviously won't be a written test, but what sort of exercise is this?  
  
Once all the benches had been stacked against the wall a very impatient Kiri shouted another order. "Gees, so slow, you expect to become chuunins. Anyway...get in a circle! Sit down! Move it! Move it!"  
  
One hundred and seventy four genin dashed around now open examination hall, and then managed to make an awkward giant circle that just barely fit into the room. With the examiners on the edge and the foot tapping Kiri in the center. "Sit down already!" She kept shouting at several genin.  
  
It's not an act, Neji realized. She's doing this deliberately, having us pick up the benches, then scramble to sit like this. They're trying to confuse us. Realizing this, he made sure to keep a close watch on both his teammates. Gosain seemed perfectly composed, not flustered at all, and Shiren was steady, though her eyes betrayed some nervousness about what was going to happen.  
  
When everyone was seated, Kiri spoke again. "Good. We now begin the first exam of this Chuunin Exam." 


	16. Within Stone Halls

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And now, the Chuunin exam begins! I've done my best to both be original and keep things in the spirit of the actual exam that occurred in Naruto. This chapter and subsequent chapters are going to be kind of long, but they sort of have to be, so hopefully its okay.  
  
Anyways, thanks to reviewers, and hope you enjoy this! New commentators encouraged!  
  
Within Stone Halls  
  
"Pay close attention as I explain what is about to happen." The examiner, Kiri, began. "You will not be given any extra time to digest the rules or question the examiners." She said in her energetic and quick voice. "This is how it works, two teams in this room aren't genins at all, but chuunins, you genin have to figure out which one of those teams it is and then submit your answer to one of the examiners by writing it down on their form."  
  
Two teams of chuunins? Neji was already beginning to consider the options, who it might be, but Kiri was far from done.  
  
"That's the objective, but here are the rules. First, all members of a team must submit their answer at the same time, but each one will sign a different form. If the answers a team gives are different, then they fail."  
  
So, we all have to have the same answers, but why wouldn't we all agree on the best choice? Neji wondered.  
  
Kiri quickly made the purpose of the prior rule apparent. "While this is going on any team that is noted to reveal what they decide to another team will have their entire team disqualified immediately. There are no second chances."  
  
We can't reveal what we decide, but any team can spy on us and not be punished. Neji recognized it immediately. Any team that talks or discusses their choices could easily give up the answer to another team, who can reduce their risk by spying on someone. We can't communicate openly!  
  
"You will have thirty minutes to determine who the masquerading chuunins are. The examiners are coming around to give each team numbers that you will wear front and back. Those are the designations we will use."  
  
"Is that all?" A nameless ninja barked from Neji's left, apparently impatient.  
  
"No! Idiot!" Kiri turned and shouted at him. "Listen when I'm talking to you. Here's the rest of it. You can all move around and do whatever you want in this room, but fighting is not permitted. Anyone who fights, attacks, or threatens another team will be ejected from this exam and tossed out of the village to face the blizzards. Do I make myself clear?" The genin cringed and nodded. "Good." Kiri paused, and here voice lost all seriousness, becoming quite happy and personable. "Oh, if you turn the exam in and get the choice wrong you will be disqualified from the exam, but if you turn in the exam and your answers don't match the rest of your team's you'll never be allowed to take the chuunin exam here in Stone ever again. If you aren't confident that you'll have the same answers, when the thirty minutes are up you will have one minute to decide not to submit them and leave the exam on your own." She smiled at them all. "Okay, the clock on the wall is the arbiter, when the second hand strikes twelve...begin!"  
  
Neji's mind leapt forward, categorizing everything the examiner had said. Obviously, just like the last exam the purpose of this exam is somewhat masked. I doubt they really care about whether or not we discover who the chuunins are. They are trying to measure something with how the test is set up. Let's see. Neji thought about it for a moment, and then had it figured out. Cheating is freely allowed, and those who are cheated on are the ones who loose, so they are trying to test our skills at operating secretly. Also, they insist that we have the same answers, or we'll be forbidden to ever take the exam here again. This woman's not like Ibiki, she's said it from the beginning, to let us stew in it. With the restriction on communication it will be impossible to be sure what teammates will write down. We have to trust them absolutely. Neji didn't like that realization. It instantly infected him with a knawing doubt. Do I trust them? He wondered. Never mind. He told himself. Decide that later; figure out who the chuunins are now.  
  
"Shiren, Gosain." He looked at his companions. "Do you have ways to investigate this?"  
  
They both nodded. "Alright then." Neji told them. "Fifteen minutes to figure out who it is."  
  
They other two nodded again. Gosain stood up immediately, and turned to the ninja next to him. "I'm Kabure Gosain." He told the boy, a Stone ninja, and bowed.  
  
The other ninja hesitantly bowed back. Gosain stuck out his hand, and didn't even wait more than a second before moving to the next ninja over as the youth stuck his own hand out hesitantly. He then repeated the process with the next ninja down.  
  
Clever, Gosain. Neji noted. You're trying to measure their reactions and responses, to see if they act as a chuunin would or a Genin would. He noticed that Gosain started wandering randomly and varied his approach routine. You must figure that if you put them off balance you can tell if they're a chuunin or not. Knowing that Gosain had working with many chuunin, Neji decided that the Cloud Ninja was using an effective strategy.  
  
Shiren did something rather different. She stood in the center of the room, pulled seven shuriken, and started to juggle them. This drew some dark looks at the examiners, but she didn't throw any of them, just juggled them. After a few moments though, she secretly snatched the seventh shuriken out of the air and held it in her left hand. Her movement was so fast and assured Neji was certain very few people caught it, but it wasn't as fast as Shiren could have moved. She's predicting a chuunin would notice, and they probably would if they were paying attention. Then Shiren started to motion with the shuriken secretly, as if to throw, though she didn't throw all the while continuing to juggle. She's looking for the very slightest reaction. Neji decided. Any chuunin who notices will make some tiny movement; even knowing it's a ruse, since the reflex is ingrained. Shiren is sharp enough to catch that tiny moment of reflex.  
  
So, the other two members of his team had chosen strategies that seemed likely to work, or at least to eliminate many contenders, and Neji knew that they would not bother with everyone. The number of potential chuunin here is quite small. Neji immediately began his own process to narrow it down. He immediately eliminated all the Waterfall ninja from his consideration, they had arrived as a group, and he knew there had been twenty-one beforehand. Likewise he didn't bother with the lightning ninja, relying on Gosain or Shiren to recognize anyone secreted among their number. The Byakugan emerged silently on his face, and Neji took in the Grass and Rain ninja, looking at those he recognized from before first, and eliminating them from possible consideration. Then he began to look deeply at those ninja, at the mist and sand ninja, and most importantly at the Stone ninja. The Grass, Rain, Sand and Mist contingents are two small to secrete someone in, the ninja from those villages would have a huge advantage, and none of them are using Henge to change their appearance. So, it must be the Stone ninja. Neji began to examine the chakra of those grubby mountain ninja as they moved about the room, conducting their own searches. A chuunin will have a certain amount of chakra at the minimum. Many of these will not have enough; they couldn't be chuunin, that's the first step to eliminate them.  
  
Neji reduced the number of candidates from eighty-one to fifteen in a matter of seconds, simply based on the chakra they possessed. Five teams, well, hmm... Carefully he considered what to do next. He considered several things he might examine, motion, chakra control, alertness, and discarded a number of them in turn. He did look at chakra control in three of the five teams that moved about, and was able to eliminate one of them simply because the genin could not probably barely make jutsus work with such a level of control, and one of his teammates was hardly better. They were powerful, but unfocused, not chuunin. Still, that left four teams. Two of them will be chuunins, I'm certain of that, but what would reveal them? They should be young, and not particularly high ranking, with no major distinctive marks, which probably eliminates one of the teams, which seems to be an older group of genin, but that could be a trick. Still, there should be something I can see.  
  
Then Neji had an inspiration. They are not wearing chuunin uniforms, but they should be used to doing so. The heavy winter uniforms worn here would leave distinctive patterns on the flesh, I wonder if they show them? Clothing was not an effective barrier to the Byakugan, not at Neji's level of sight, he could see into the flesh and the chakra circulatory system, and not patterns of resistance, and where they didn't line up with the clothes these ninja were wearing, but with the outlines of a chuunin uniform. He looked, and he saw.  
  
Yes, that team of two women and one man, all three wearing the same rock gray and circulating quietly, they have the marks of chuunin uniforms. As for the older team, well, Neji was surprised, but they had a characteristic pattern that revealed clearly the back sword-harnesses they usually wore. ANBU! Neji was surprised. I didn't expect them to put three ANBU in here. I bet I'm the only one to notice. Shiren and Gosain's methods won't discern ninja of that caliber. So, the two teams bit was a trick then, you don't expect anyone to put the ANBU team's number. Still, Neji memorized both numbers, the more obvious Chuunin were team 38, and the ANBU were team 29. I'll need to put down 38, since that's what Shiren and Gosain will determine.  
  
That conclusion came easily, but it sowed doubt within Neji's mind, a doubt that would be suddenly reinforced by a hurled kunai.  
  
"You!" An examiner's voice spoke. "Get out, you're done here!" The chuunin gestured at one of the Rain ninja.  
  
"What?" The cruel faced genin said through a breathmask. "What for?"  
  
"Another team found out what you were telling your fellows, so get moving." The examiner answered.  
  
"How can you say that-"He began to protest, but a barehanded slap knocked him to the ground with a sickening thud.  
  
"Didn't I say you'd be failed immediately if you failed to follow instructions." Kiri looked at the prone chuunin, who obviously had a broken nose and perhaps more damage. "You've just failed on two counts, so pack up your teammates and get lost, kay?" She smiled with viscous happiness.  
  
Five minutes had passed.  
  
Neji watched the Rain ninja leave, getting dragged off by his disappointed teammates. He was the first, but not the last.  
  
Already knowing the answer, Neji did his best to chart Shiren and Gosain's progress in their own endeavors. The two switched information-gathering techniques a few times, Gosain took to making viscous handshakes and crushing eye contact, while Shiren watched the progress of several other teams for a bit before going back to another ranged routine. They seemed to be proceeding through the Stone ninja swiftly enough. The dragon ninja also observed the two teams of chuunin, both the more apparent false ones and the ANBU. The targets were simply being mysterious, muttering nonsense to other teams that didn't really seem to be leading anywhere and gave the appearance of a team with weak information gathering skills. But the ANBU...They're trying to make teams fail! The older ninja were going out of their way to surreptitiously give other teams away by making them vulnerable to being overheard, or listening in on their conversations. Neji made a note of that. We can't try to communicate at all when the ANBU are around.  
  
"My, boy, you haven't spoke to anyone at all yet, or even moved at all." A voice spoke from above Neji, the examiner, Kiri.  
  
Of course, he could see her, his Byakugan revealed her perfectly, but he didn't feel it necessary to make that apparent. Still, he did not look up. "Each ninja is allowed his own methods I presume?"  
  
"Awfully confident aren't you." She replied from above, letting Neji stare at her legs. "Well that's fine, Team 58, just make sure you know what your decision is going to be."  
  
Before the fifteen minutes were up, out of fifty-eight teams, five had been thrown out. Neji knew that the process of throwing them out had only just begun. They will start talking to each other now, and then the numbers will really drop.  
  
Gosain came back first, but Shiren followed only seconds on his heels. Both Cloud ninja looked nervous, and they gave Neji strange looks. For indeed, he hadn't moved a muscle during the whole fifteen minutes, though other ninja had walked up to him, spoken to him, even flashed weapons in front of his face. It was most disconcerting, a statue of a ninja with extraordinarily disturbing eyes sitting in the middle of the hall.  
  
Gosain and Shiren sat in front of Neji.  
  
"So, I'm..." Gosain began.  
  
Neji held up a hand for silence immediately, ignoring the angry look on the older ninja's face. Sorry Gosain, Neji thought inwardly. We can't do anything until those ANBU move further away.  
  
They waited a long two minutes. Then Neji spoke again, as quietly as possible. "Sorry, but things are not as they seem." He told the other two. "I need you to do exactly as I say. Find a way to indicate your findings, but no speech, no written words, nothing that can be seen."  
  
They nodded, and looked at each other, then looked back at Neji.  
  
Gosain put a hand to his chest, and Neji followed the movement. Then the chains beneath the ninja's flak jacket moved.  
  
One by one Gosain placed a tiny bit of chakra through his pole and down the chain. One after another a link of chain would shake, a tiny motion, one that didn't ruffle his chest at all, to Shiren, or any other ninja, it appeared that nothing was happening.  
  
Neji saw those links shake with his Byakugan, thirty-eight different shakes of the chain. He nodded.  
  
"You! You're done!" A kunai flew over Neji's head, to land in front of the nearest ninja behind him, a stone ninja. It was not alone. Even as Gosain and Shiren settled their shaken nerves, examiners threw out another five teams in less than a minute.  
  
Ten minutes to go.  
  
Neji turned his head toward Shiren, a tiny movement. She reached into her shuriken pouch, a soft smile on her face.  
  
Neji's vision saw behind Shiren's head, Kiri had turned her gaze their way.  
  
His hand descended on Shiren's instantly, holding it in place. He shook his head. "It appears we are being too closely watched." He looked into her midnight eyes. "You did determine it?" He asked.  
  
She nodded, the barest hint of a motion, and her smiled faded to a hollow one, dark and displeased. She was angry at being thwarted.  
  
"So what do we do then?" Gosain hissed.  
  
"We have confidence in each other's abilities. That's all we can do. Do you accept that?" He asked them both.  
  
Shiren was the first to nod, openly; she didn't hold back her assurance. "I'm sure you're right Neji." She said softly. Neji found the vote of confidence tremendously strengthening. He tapped her hand, which he was still holding, in thanks and then let go.  
  
"Fine." Gosain said, his voice was gruff and bitter, but he agreed, he knew there wasn't any other choice. "But what about you?"  
  
Indeed, what do I think? Neji thought hard, abandoning even the Byakugan for a moment. He was absolutely certain of his choice, he knew he had discovered the teams; everything he saw in the past fifteen minutes had only confirmed it. Gosain has the right number, he was able to show me, and he wouldn't betray us and write the wrong one, Xi told me that much, there's too much riding for him on this exam, and its not his way to ever back down from a challenge like this. Shiren though, Shiren...Neji was troubled. He knew Gosain had the right number, but he would have to trust Shiren. It all depended on her, and she was the one least able to perform this task. Did she succeed? I don't know, I can't read her movements easily. It was not something Neji was used to, extending his trust to another, for a long time he had resisted it, considering only those who had a fate to equal him worth depending on. I'm not the same I was then. He knew, but he still couldn't decide easily.  
  
Neji spent a long few minutes sitting there, even as the examiners threw out another seven team, and the deadline approached. Forty-one teams left. I can't back down. Neji knew that for sure. But should I make Shiren try to tell me, should I try to tell her? He looked up at Kiri with his own true eyes for the first time. He looked into her eyes, eyes like an eagle's looking for blood on the snow. No, he couldn't do that. He had to trust Shiren. Then, I will, Neji resolved.  
  
"Ah." Neji told the two finally, but it was to Shiren he was speaking. "You're my team."  
  
The lady cloud ninja gave him a warm smile at that moment, and Neji was taken aback, but his mind instantly focused back in the present when Kiri's voice rang out over the room.  
  
"Time's up!" She said, and then went on without pausing. "You have one minute to get in line in front of an examiner. Keep in mind, if your numbers don't agree you can't take the exam here again, and I highly doubt that any jounin will sponsor you anywhere else, since you obviously can't work with a team if you can't come up with the same answers in such a simple situation."  
  
"You're bluffing!" A grass ninja shouted. "They tried this same trick in Konoha!"  
  
"Bluffing?" Kiri seemed taken aback, but she smiled at the young ninja. "I'm not bluffing. I gave the exam four years ago, and those genin who tried to out fox me like that are still genin. A ninja who can't work with a team is fit only to take orders. This isn't the leaf, which bends in the wind, this is Stone, and we are absolute." Her voice was completely serious during speech, rock hard and lacking any of the cloying tones she'd used before.  
  
She's serious, totally serious. Neji hesitated for a moment, but he remembered Shiren's smile at him. No, I can't doubt her like this. The internal reply was instantaneous, he thought that, and he also realized a moment later that he didn't doubt her, indeed he felt horrid for even having imagined it. What sort of teammate am I?  
  
For a few seconds nobody moved, but then a quivering lightning ninja stood and walked toward the door. "I withdraw." He said in trembling tones.  
  
Kiri nodded, and the floodgates were opened. It took some courage to proclaim that you didn't trust your teammates so openly as the lone one, but it didn't take any courage to follow another ninja.  
  
Everyone else stood and began to line up in front of the examiners. Neji's team stood behind a trio of Cloud ninja.  
  
The first two wrote down their numbers of the sheets they were given simply, but the third hesitated as he bent over the desk, his eyes darting to those covered forms that had already been accepted, his hand shook, and then he dropped the pen. "I can't do it." He muttered, looking helplessly at his comrades.  
  
The examiner had to vault over the desk to prevent him from being throttled by them. "Enough," He said sternly, holding the two ninja to the floor. "He's made his decision, so get out of here."  
  
That examiner escorted them out, and another took his place.  
  
Calmly Gosain, and then Shiren went forward and wrote down the numbers of the team they suspected as chuunins. After each wrote the chuunin placed the paper in a sealed box, so that no one could catch a glimpse. Then Neji stepped up to the desk. The examiner had the simple paper laid out in front, with only three lines on it, name, team, chuunin suspect they read. Neji calmly filled in his name and team number. He moved to add the number thirty-eight to the page.  
  
"Are you sure you want to do that, Draci Neji?" Kiri's cloying voice sounded in his right ear. "This is your last chance."  
  
Neji didn't bother to turn his head. "Don't overestimate yourself, examiner." He said.  
  
Neji placed the pen down, and calmly wrote in the number 29 in clear script, so that both the chuunin in front of him, and Kiri next to him, could see it. Their eyes went wide, and then cruel, but he hadn't lifted the pen away. Calmly, Neji crossed over the mark and wrote 38 down in its place. He put the pen down and handed the paper to the examiner.  
  
When he turned around Kiri was looking at him with a cold expression, her eyes scanning his face, evaluating him. "You're not what I expected Dragon Ninja." She said softly, so only he could hear. "Apologies for harassing you."  
  
Neji nodded, and turned back to his teammates.  
  
"Alright, everyone who's still here, sit down and get back in a circle! Move! Move!" Kiri shouted.  
  
The genin scrambled to obey.  
  
They made a much smaller circle, there were far fewer teams remaining.  
  
A moment of silence passed, the only sound was that of the examiners shuffling papers. Then one of them came over to Kiri and spoke into her ear. Her expression grew grim. "Teams Five and Seventeen. Stand up and get the hell out of this village! You're numbers don't match each other." Team five was a team of Sand ninja, and they looked at the examiner with killing in their eyes. She stared straight back at them. They got up slowly, and walked imperiously out the door, never once glancing at each other. Team Nineteen consisted of three rookie ninja from Rain who looked devastated; they slowly slinked toward the door. "Oh change your damn ways and try Konoha," Kiri laughed at them. "Don't drag this out any longer than it has to be."  
  
When they were gone she moved into the center of the circle. "The rest of you pass!" She announced.  
  
There was a cry of surprise from several stone ninja and one of the cloud teams. The rest were silent.  
  
"About what you expected it seems?" Kiri laughed. "Goes to show that only veterans come to play in the snow. However, don't think I'm discounting your answers; we looked at what teams were put down, and all of you answered with numbers we deemed correct, even if you didn't get the chuunin. Teams Thirty-Eight and Twenty-Nine, stand up and be recognized!" Kiri commanded.  
  
The two teams of actually chuunin rose to their feet. "Hi" one of the members of team thirty-eight said.  
  
"Twenty-nine? Impossible!" A Waterfall ninja shouted. "Those guys couldn't be chuunins."  
  
"You're right, they're not normal chuunin, these guys are ANBU." Kiri explained. "Their purpose is to be un-findable, so that there's actually only one team of real chuunin you can detect. They also try to expose one team's discoveries to the eyes of others, making it easier on you. The actual Chuunin also make sure that their status is recognizable. Normally you would have to get the right answer, since it really isn't that hard, one in three of you should easily have the observation skills to either detect which team is which or steal the information from the other teams. The challenge in my exam is trusting your team members." Kiri laughed again. "Ninja have to operate in secret, unable to communicate in methods that can be detected, and they must trust each other absolutely. That's the twin aspects of this exam, to measure your ability to get information across while being monitored, and to see if you trust your teammates to know your thoughts and act as one."  
  
"So why didn't our answers matter this time?" Again the question came from the Waterfall ninja.  
  
"They did." Kiri laughed again. "I just chose to allow Team Fifty-Eight as an alternative choice, since they seem too suspicious. All of you either wrote down thirty-eight or fifty-eight."  
  
Damn! Neji thought. Everyone is looking at us! We've just been pinpointed as one of the most dangerous teams. I was hoping to avoid this kind of attention. He met the stares stoically, without much reaction. Well, it seems we just acquired a handicap for the Second Exam.  
  
While the others stared at him, Neji stared at the rest. Twenty-two teams remain. One team from Mist, two teams from Grass, a team from Rain, a team from Sand, three teams from Cloud, six teams from Stone, and...and...all seven teams from Waterfall? What?  
  
Neji felt Shiren and Gosain stiffen beside him as they noticed the same thing. Not a single team dropped out? What's going on with them? Neji grimaced, and he felt anger rise. Those Waterfall ninja have managed to pull some trick, and I'm sure it doesn't end here.  
  
Kiri stepped out of the circle then. "This concludes the First portion of the chuunin exam, she said in mock seriousness." She gestured at the chuunin examiners. "Somebody let the Second Examiner in already, he's impatient." 


	17. Upon the Snow

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Here we go for the second exam! This chapter is really long I admit, but its very important, and all the next few chapters will be long ones as some important stuff happens.  
  
For the reviewers: Orhla: sort of the same, sort of different, you'll find out. There really wasn't that much I could do to change the nature of a survival challenge frankly, though I tried to avoid the same things that happened to Naruto and co.  
  
Silver Dragonfly: Thanks for reading and commenting. I'm glad you appreciated the original characters and some of the moves (I really agonize over coming up with decent moves sometimes). I suppose the phrase dragon ninja is kind of cheesy. But shinobi and ninja are really the same word (just read differently) and I don't think shinobi ryu (which means ninja dragon but also simply 'hiding person school' a term for ninja organizations) quite works.  
  
Upon the Snow  
  
One of the Examiners went over to the doors and opened them, only to be knocked out of the way by the figure that came striding through. The second examiner practically jogged into the center of the room. On his way he tossed a folder full of forms and a small bag to one of the examiners. "Pass those out, and get them signed."  
  
The man then entered the center of the circle of ninja, and finally paused.  
  
This examiner does seem to be in a hurry, Neji noted. The man was otherwise unremarkable; he looked like any of the other examiners in their brown uniforms. "Sixty six remain, good." The man even spoke quickly, in a serviceable and simple voice. "Sign your release forms and take a pendant from one of the examiners. Don't loose the pendant." He admonished. "Rules for the second exam are simple, so I'll cover them quickly and then we can get going. You will be dispersed around the mountains in Secure Area Twelve. The area is dangerous and prone to avalanches, so it is only used for this exam. You will be given a five-day period to complete your objectives, which are as follows, bring four pendants to the shrine at the top of Mt. Kemigari. Your whole team must be present upon completion."  
  
"Wait!" Some spoke up from the Cloud ninja. "We only have to have four pendants? Our team already has three."  
  
"Yes, so you will need to acquire another one." The examiner said impatiently. "Is that not clear?"  
  
"That's way too easy." Somebody muttered.  
  
"Acquiring a pendant is the simple objective, reaching the top of Mt. Kemigari will be far more difficult. Secure Area Twelve has a radius of four kilometers, you will need to travel that distance in under the five day period." The examiner grimaced. "If at any time one of your team members is severely incapacitated or wounded the area will be patrolled by the examiners, who will pick you up and remove you from the premises. This will cause you to fail the exam, but will likely spare your lives. Contesting an examiner's judgment when you are to be removed is not allowed. There are no rules of engagement between you genin except the following: Anyone seen to be using excessive force or pursuing additional combats past the point where you have accomplished your objectives for no reasonable purpose shall be ejected. Again, this cannot be contested." With his speech done he paused to take a breath and look around the room. "It seems that everyone has pendants and has signed the forms. Excellent, let's not waste any more time. Follow me immediately."  
  
The examiner led the sixty-six genin down the stairs and out of the examination hall; the chuunin examiners flanked them to both sides. When the man, who Neji noticed had not even bothered to give his own name, flung open the doors, everyone was blown back.  
  
A blizzard. Neji thought, hardly surprised, but irritated. So, we have to take the exam in this.  
  
Snow fell fast and furious outside, whipped about by a cold wind. The streets were deserted and the white covering was piling up quickly. It was bitingly cold and the furious wind seemed to steal all heat.  
  
"All you examiners, take a team to one of the entrances to the area. We'll start at the appointed time." The jounin called, and then sprinted off in the snow.  
  
One of the chuunin motioned to Neji's team. "All right fifty-eight, let's get moving, I don't want to spend anymore time out in this than I have to."  
  
"Heh. Lucky you." Gosain muttered. "You guys get to start us off in the afternoon in a blizzard."  
  
"That's right." The chuunin answered bitterly. "And I have to patrol the whole damn mountain side with you fools out in it. So why don't you do us all a favor and fail quickly."  
  
"Not likely," was Gosain's reply.  
  
The team followed the Chuunin to the edge of Stone village, and perhaps a kilometer outside it, still in the more sheltered part of the mountainside, but then everything opened up.  
  
A high mountain dominated everything in front of them, with a rough and rugged peak and surroundings hills and valleys that seemed likely to destroy anyone alive. Everything was white or black, snow and ice or hard exposed stone, and all the edges were razor sharp. "That's Secure Area Twelve." The chuunin told them. "Try not to get caught in an avalanche, this blizzard'll surely start several."  
  
The walked a short distance further, all the while Neji's team stared at those peaks, and the tiny hint of a small building at the top of the central spire, Mt. Kemigari. The objective. It's a long way, Neji noted, tracking potential slopes that could be climbed or jumped. No four- kilometer path will lead there, it will be probably eight at least, and fighting on those high slopes would be suicide.  
  
"How long until we begin?" Neji asked.  
  
"Ah, about a half hour, your entrance was pretty close." The chuunin pointed at a high stone post stuck into the ground. No fence or edge marked the boundary of this area.  
  
"Well then," Neji turned to his teammates. "We should come up with a strategy now, before we get inside. Suggestions?"  
  
"Speed." Gosain answered. "We find the first team we can, take one of their pendants, and try to make it to the high slopes at least before night falls, make it all the way if we can."  
  
"Ah." Neji echoed. "It's already far too cold out here, there's no reason to waste time finding worthy opponents." The mountains are the true opponents in this scenario, not the ninja. This isn't like Konoha; a single step could mean death here. "Anything to suggest Shiren?"  
  
"He said the area was only four kilometers in radius right?" She asked Neji.  
  
"Yeah." He answered.  
  
"Then that means the whole edge is only about twenty-four, if the teams are divided equally around the edge there should be team within a kilometer of this spot. Two actually."  
  
"Within a kilometer?" Neji considered. Then he looked out ahead, noting a short, treeless rise only a short distance ahead. "Fine, we'll make for that rise. Once there, I'll use Byakugan to spot the nearest team. We'll move in and grab a pendant and then head up from there."  
  
"Will you be able to see from that far off?" Gosain asked.  
  
"Ah. A kilometer isn't far, and there's not a lot to get in the way."  
  
"I suppose that much is true." He bit off a laugh. "It's a good plan."  
  
Shiren nodded her assent as well.  
  
They waited for the time to come.  
  
The chuunin looked at his watch, raised his hand, and waited a moment. The team stretched out their cold limbs. Then, when the watch passed some arbitrary time, the chuunin brought his hand down. "Begin!"  
  
The three ninja dashed forward.  
  
It took only about a minute to reach the rise above, blood flow warming their cold muscles. Neji brought forth the Byakugan and stared out into the distance, approximating where the others would be. He looked east first. Hmm...I don't see anything, no, wait, there are three ninja moving quickly eastward, away from us. Damn! He turned west. Ah. Found it, three ninja, actually moving in and toward us, and on relatively flat ground. From this distance his vision wasn't sharp enough to detect exactly which ninja they were, but their garments weren't brown, so they were not any of the Stone teams.  
  
"There's a team to the west, moving up and toward us. We can intercept them easily. Follow." Neji gave the word.  
  
They dashed onward over the ice and snow.  
  
It was hard going, in that blizzard, and Neji really couldn't see much beyond the feet in front of him and what the Byakugan revealed in the distance. The team made decent time, however, since the slope here was moderate, and the snow well packed. The experience of climbing up to hidden waterfall had proved helpful beyond any expectations as well, since now Neji and Shiren had a sense of how to move in these kinds of conditions.  
  
"The three ninja have fanned out to scout the position!" Neji called over the wind to his teammates. "We'll attack as fast as possible. I'll distract him, Shiren, Gosain, bring him down."  
  
They nodded, not trying to say anything over the wind.  
  
The three ninja came over a rise, not more than fifty meters from the ninja. Neji recognized him now, the ninja as part of the team from Sand. He looked miserable in the cold, the sand ninja were from far to the south, and had obviously not acclimated. His reactions were slow and Neji could tell that his blood and chakra were moving sluggishly.  
  
Neji leapt forward, flying in from above. "Strike!" He called to his Cloud teammates.  
  
The Sand ninja turned in shock at their sudden appearance, but pulled out two kunai and threw them at Neji before leaping backwards.  
  
Neji slapped the weapons aside easily, even as several of Shiren's shuriken flew past him, to stick in the snow past the Sand Nin.  
  
Neji could see Shiren behind him, and Gosain moving up on the right side as he landed, forcing the Sand Nin to jump backward, into the row of shuriken Shiren had launched into the snow.  
  
The Sand Nin pulled loose a kunai and started to charge at Neji, oblivious to the threat from behind.  
  
Even as he stretched out to block the blow, Neji could see Shiren forming the hand seals. "Lightning Element: Charged Spark Missiles!"  
  
Shuriken impacted shuriken, and the electrified bolts of metal flew from the ground. Neji blocked the oncoming attack and shoved the Sand genin backwards.  
  
The unfortunate ninja's eyes went wide as the shuriken bit into his back.  
  
Electricity arched over his body, making every hair stand up and all his muscles spasm at once. He stood twitching for a long moment.  
  
Gosain came in with his pole to the sand ninja's right side.  
  
The genin collapsed to the ground, coughing in pain.  
  
Before the genin had managed to take another breath Gosain had reached into the sand ninja's shirt and pulled the pendant chain loose. He held the small crystal up for the other two to see and then added it to the other chain he wore. "Got it." Gosain said matter-of-factly. "Let's go."  
  
"Ah." Neji replied.  
  
The three had gotten back up to the top of the rise when Neji's all around vision saw the two other sand ninja come running up to their fallen comrade.  
  
"You! Stop!" The called, and raised their kunai to throw.  
  
Neji turned around and stared at them with his cold and frightening Byakugan eyes. "Think before you do something you regret." He said with a toneless voice.  
  
"What? You just took down my teammate! Don't think I'll let you get away with that." The sand ninja called up at them.  
  
"Foolish." Neji said. "The situation is against you, it is three on two, and we took down one member of your team with ridiculous ease. Don't try to fight us, our level is well above yours." He spoke to them sternly. I don't want to hurt ninja like you, and there's no need for another fight. "Let this end here. You retain two pendants and your companion is not too seriously injured, if you can beat another team that will erase this defeat. If you insist on trying to continue this battle you will have no pendants remaining and will not be able to continue the exam."  
  
The other sand ninja tugged on his companion's arm. "It's team fifty- eight, we really shouldn't mess with them, I don't want to freeze out here."  
  
"Fine." The Sand ninja said, lowering his kunai. "But don't think I'll thank you for it."  
  
Neji didn't bother to respond. "Let's go." He told Shiren and Gosain.  
  
"Ah." They replied, and moved out.  
  
They moved inward now, and more slowly, keeping an eye out for possible enemies, and the best path. It was already midway through the afternoon, and with the blizzard, surprisingly dark. They all recognized that there was perhaps two hours of light left, no more. "Gosain," Neji asked. "Can we make it by nightfall?"  
  
"Not in this blizzard." The older ninja spat. "Damn it. We'll have to find some shelter below the treeline."  
  
"There's a long canyon ahead." Shiren spoke up. "It looks to lead most of the way up, probably within a kilometer of the top. I suggest that."  
  
"Canyons are dangerous, we could get trapped within it." Neji said darkly.  
  
"Ah." Gosain told them both. "We could get trapped, but it will be sheltered, and if there's little enough snow we could consider pressing on to the very end of it, and then making the short dash in the morning. It looks as if the path through the canyon's only going to be about six kilometers. The next best choice is probably about ten, and way more exposed. Besides, even though I have mountain experience, I'm no mountaineer. We can't afford to be caught in the open."  
  
"Fine." Neji said, accepting their reasons, though he didn't like having to make the choice. "I suppose every team will have to stop for the night, unless they have some special light source to use."  
  
They took the canyon path, trudging through heights of snow that kept increasing. Gosain led, since he was the strongest, pushing the snow aside. Shiren followed in the middle, with Neji taking the rear.  
  
The conditions did improve once they entered the canyon. The wind was cut down, and the snow accumulation was far less, so they could make better time. It was very dark though, and visibility was minimal. This isn't good. Neji decided. This canyon is too useful under these conditions; other ninja will be funneled into it. "Gosain. We have to make it to the far end for certain." Neji ordered. "Too many ninja will stumble in here after dark."  
  
Gosain grumbled for a bit, but replied. "Probably right, but I'm going as fast as I can, unless you want to blow through all your chakra fighting some snow."  
  
Neji didn't bother to reply. He's right of course, we could burn through chakra and just run atop the snow, even Gosain has enough skill to make that work, if just barely, but it would take too much, there's too much distance. If we had one hour more this wouldn't be a problem, Neji knew. Still, he was well aware that a nighttime ascent of the final peak was not an option.  
  
Darkness came tumbling down suddenly, as the sun passed fully under the horizon, not that it could be seen anyway. "That pretty much does it Neji." Gosain called from up front.  
  
"Ah." The dragon ninja replied. "Let's make a shelter before the cold sets in."  
  
This was something all three had experience in, since Xi had forced them to practice it three times on the road to stone, making snow shelters. So they piled up great mounds of snow next to a small space between rocks, and then, in the dark they dug out enough space between the walls for them all to pile into, they froze the walls in place with Gosain's chains, which formed a sort of cage to hold the snow up. To think that such a seemingly impractical weapon would prove so useful off the battlefield. Neji remarked to himself about the chains. Probably why he uses them. The weapons fit him very well.  
  
"There's no way to keep watch," Neji told them as they huddled in darkness. "Still, we have a few explosion notes set, and anyone trying to rip this snow off will probably be surprised, so we can at least attempt some sleep. We'll have to do without food."  
  
"Heh." Gosain muttered. "I've slept in worse spaces."  
  
Shiren said nothing.  
  
Crawling inside that tiny hole in the snow was viscous, and sleeping inside it, still wearing their cold weather gear, the only thing they had to prevent from becoming soaked, was torturous. They three were stuck together in a single mass, Shiren, Neji and Gosain, with nothing to see, no light whatsoever penetrated within, and everything the same. They twitched and contorted through the night, drifting in and out of some semblance of sleep, and feeling the energy loss that came from a day outside in the cold, trying to fight against exhaustion to come the next day.  
  
Still it was warm enough, with three bodies inside that snow shelter, and Neji found himself uncomfortably aware of Shiren, lying next to him. As bad as this is for Gosain and I, it has to be far worse for her, Neji realized in one of his waking periods during the night. She is an attractive girl, something that Neji had always noticed but tried to avoid thinking about, and here she is pressed together with the two of us. We are a team, but this is far more than she could have expected when this began. Neji was surprised at himself, feeling bad about this for Shiren; it wasn't something he really ever did. It was not something he had grown up sensitive to, the misery of others, always thinking his own the greatest. Naruto might have disproved that, but Neji knew he was still hardly a compassionate person. I am cold and unlikable, and a dragon ninja with blood on his hands. What can Shiren think? Huddled next to me like this?  
  
He wondered, but he realized Shiren had not complained, and had not contested the course they had taken. She had known they would be stuck together like this, and had said nothing. Does she not mind? She did sometimes say little, but she was usually outspoken. It made Neji think deeply, in that space the mind goes to between sleep and wakefulness, a space punctured by the cold and the still audible howling of the wind outside in the canyon. He thought about Shiren there, thought for some nebulous period of endless time where moments stretched out and spun.  
  
In that dark night Neji realized that he thought of Shiren as his friend. It was a startling revelation to discover. He was never open with people, and he was not familiar with what most people considered friends. Tenten perhaps, though I still treated her harshly. He recalled, but beyond that, there was no one else he trusted as openly as Shiren, no one he wanted to fight with him. He might respect others, like Gosain, or Naruto, and admire the strength of someone like Xi, but they were not his friends. Shiren is different, all that time I spent working with her, practicing, talking, and working together as ninja. When this is over, I don't want to have to tell her to go. That was a lightning bolt of a revelation to Neji, that he liked his team, and would be disappointed to lose it as he had lost the last. His mind found the thought of losing this team wretched.  
  
Gosain I cannot preserve, he is a strong man, but he will go back to Cloud when this is done. It was the irrevocable truth, and Neji knew that fact was as solid as the chains the older ninja bore. Shiren though, Shiren is not the same thing. "Yes, Shiren has the potential to be a Dragon Ninja." Xi's words slipped into Neji's dreaming mind, and they embedded themselves there. Neji latched onto those words, and all their implications, and made certain that in the morning he would remember them, even as the rest of this strange night slipped away.  
  
* * *  
  
It was the first glimmer of light, the barest bit of gray to be caught by the eyes and reveal and outline, peaking through their tunneled entrance, that brought Gosain fully awake with a start. His hand reached over and grasped the pole that served as the center of his chains. He held that pole and channeled his chakra, letting it surge through. The chains clinked and shook like a fence in the wind.  
  
Gosain spun his wrist.  
  
Chains rose like a flock of metal birds, shedding false feathers and leaping into the sky as the snow was shaken off.  
  
That brought Neji and Shiren fully awake. It also found them with their right arms linked together. They looked at each other for a moment, and then Shiren smiled gently. "Small space indeed." She in an everyday voice, and made nothing of it.  
  
The three were up and moving within moments, shaking snow out of their clothes, and restoring stiff limbs to movement. Gosain quickly rewound the chains about his body, shivering from the cold of them, but he went through a series of exercises and did his best to warm up. "There probably isn't more than two hundred meters before we lose these canyon walls slowly to open rock," Gosain said, pointing out the influx of light from above them.  
  
It was still quite dark though, for the snow continued to fall lightly, though it was nothing compared to the madness that had taken the mountainside yesterday. "Perhaps we can make it to the top before it is even fully dawn." Neji said. "Though there is still a good deal of snow. Let's get out of this canyon and consider our options."  
  
"I bet the chuunin hauled a bunch of teams off in the night, or they got otherwise removed. There can't be much more than twelve or so teams on the mountainside." Shiren told the others. "But we should be careful in this canyon."  
  
"Ah." Neji and Gosain answered, and they moved back into line.  
  
Gosain took the lead, and they passed around the curve in the canyon ahead. There was a slight dip in front of them, where the stream bed had plunged downward over a set of large boulders, but then the walls started to lower and the canyon faded.  
  
In the gray light of morning they advanced, walking observantly and paying attention to whatever might be closely, Neji still tense and alert for other ninja.  
  
That provided them only the barest moment of warning.  
  
There was a large cracking noise just before Gosain readied to jump up over the blocking boulders. "Shiren! Gosain! Ambush!" Neji shouted the words as the Byakugan took his eyes and his vision snapped wide open.  
  
His eyes widened further as he saw the icy cliffside above him break apart, and great blocks of ice came crashing down, it was as if the whole canyon was being ripped apart from within and thrown down at them. There was nothing Neji could see to do to avoid that wall of crushing white, and he simply stared as death fell down toward him as thousands of pounds of ice.  
  
"Damn you all!" The violent cry came from Gosain. His pole ripped through the bottom and top of his shirt in his haste, and the chains came flying free. "Chain Style: Whirling Stormfront!"  
  
The chains rose up as Gosain spun the pole above his head, and they crashed into the falling blocks of ice and stone with tremendous force. A thunderclap shook the enclosed canyon, deafening everyone.  
  
Neji braced himself against the crushing death to come.  
  
It did not come, shocks of thunder continued to shake the canyon as Gosain's chains formed a spinning barrier of charka suspended steel above them. Blocks of ice continued to crash down though, and there seemed to be no stopping it. Gosain's hands spun madly and every muscle on his face stood clenched.  
  
"Neji!" He croaked. "Do something! I can't keep this up!"  
  
Neji looked upwards, his focus returned, and his sight pierced the blocks of ice and stone. Above them he saw two ninja, tall smiling forms in blue, fervently making hand seals to send more of the canyon walls breaking down upon them. He recognized the coloration, and he recognized the forehead protectors they wore. "Waterfall ninja!" Neji spoke the word like a curse, but it was easily heard.  
  
"There's no way through those blocks, they're coming too fast, you'd be crushed before you got a chance to move aside, I can't jump fast enough to get a shot at them!" Shiren called to Neji nervously.  
  
Looking up again he saw that the words were true. There is no way to move fast enough to prevent getting crushed when passing beyond Gosain's chains, anyone who goes up there would be at the extent of their jump, and utterly vulnerable.  
  
Gosain grunted again, but did not speak.  
  
He's saving his strength, but he can't use up this much chakra for an extended period of time. The Waterfall ninja have us outmaneuvered! How do we escape?  
  
"Neji, is there anyway to send someone upward faster? Shiren asked him, standing only a few feet away, clenching a kunai, but knowing the weapon was useless. "That aerial jutsu you know?"  
  
"No. That wouldn't work. Dammit!" He replied. I'd have to get above them first, but there must be some way! Some way to launch someone upwards. Neji thought furiously, of all his techniques and any of Shiren's that could work, trying to find a combination that would provide just what was needed. He knew both of their jutsus and skills intimately from their many practices, and because of that he hit upon an idea that could work. "Kaiten!"  
  
"What?" Shiren looked at Neji.  
  
"Shiren, you recall the Kaiten?" She nodded quickly. "That move focuses its strength against a point of impact, and the spin even stops and releases all its remaining energy against a suitably strong attack."  
  
Shiren's eyes widened as she realized what Neji wanted her to do. "That will hurt." She said darkly.  
  
"Yes. There's no other way." He said quickly. "Do it."  
  
"Right." She tensed to spring.  
  
"Kaiten!" Neji began the spin at the moment Shiren jumped, her motion carrying her body directly into him.  
  
Shiren's left foot came in first, skimming the edge of Neji's spin, gripping chakra with chakra, all so she could pour her chakra directly into her right foot and bring it down hard, right where Neji's head was.  
  
Foot met spin with tremendous force, and Neji stopped the spin and channeled all the energy into a single burst, just as he had done when Naruto charged him months ago.  
  
They felt the impact, and Neji winced as he saw the tenkenstu struck on Shiren's foot, darkening the boot with blood, but she bit down against the pain and shot upward.  
  
Gosain's chains whipped around to avoid his fellow cloud ninja, and Shiren came streaking by, her left foot banked off one block and her body slammed up and past the screen, her kunai raised high above her head, supported by both hands.  
  
Neji watched the eyes of the Waterfall ninja spread wide open in shock as he saw Shiren appear, and he saw the man recognize that death had come for him.  
  
The kunai took the Waterfall ninja in the lower chest. Blood burst from his mouth, as Shiren removed the blade and stabbed down again. She arched onward to land on the canyon side, the Waterfall ninja's body already falling down into the canyon, light gone from his eyes.  
  
"Bitch!" The other waterfall ninja shouted, and brought his hands up to form seals, but it was already to late.  
  
The moment Shiren had stabbed the one ninja the fall of stone and ice had ceased, and Neji leaped up, hands reaching down to grab the deadliest of his weapons, the nekode. He rose up to face the Waterfall ninja and did not hesitate at all. He had already made the choice; indeed it had been made the moment the stone and ice came crashing down. If you fight like this, then you will meet the dragon ninja.  
  
The Waterfall ninja had no time to scream as Neji's hands came down in the characteristic cross, and then slid back up to his face. "Rend!"  
  
Hot blood burst over and onto Neji as he closed his eyes at the shock of it, seeing again what the viscous powers of rend did to a living being. The hot and sticky liquid coated every part of his face, and all across him clothes were instantly stained dark and red. Only his eyes were untouched, and they burned with the cruel whiteness of the Byakugan.  
  
Neji landed on the side of the canyon and turned around, to see exactly what he had expected. Gosain and Shiren stood on the other side of the canyon, staring at his blood-covered body. They avoided looking at the body that had fallen to the floor of the canyon.  
  
Gosain gave Neji a dark look, but his face emptied before he spoke. "Thanks for getting them off me." He said stonily.  
  
"Thanks for acting as you did, you saved the three of us." Neji said as warmly as he could manage with the shock of his most recent action still in him.  
  
Gosain avoided meeting his gaze.  
  
Despairing, Neji looked at Shiren, dreading what he would see in her eyes. Instead he saw something he didn't expect. She raised her blood streaked kunai to her face. "It's not any different, is it?" She said sadly.  
  
"No." Neji muttered, but her reaction somehow made him feel a little better. "Let's get going."  
  
He leapt over to their side of the canyon, but as he landed Shiren pointed up the slope with her kunai. Her hand trembled.  
  
Neji and Gosain both turned their heads to examine the wide and shear ice field above them.  
  
There, spread out all across the distance above them, stood the six remaining teams of Waterfall ninja. With the Byakugan still present Neji could look into the one at the very center, and he saw the blue hair and red eyes. "Mizain Seve." He said beneath his breath. To his companions he spoke. "It seems we are now part of a war." 


	18. Within the Ice

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And, another really massive chapter. I'm afraid I may anger you readers a bit, since this chapter switches away from Neji for a moment (and with his team in a rather bad situation too) to go back to the other dragon ninja. There's a reason I did that though, and there's plenty in this chapter anyways. I'd urge people to pay attention to things that Xi is thinking, cause there's some hints about his past in here.  
  
Reviewers: Orlha: apologies on the minor cliffhanger here, but I won't do this very often.  
  
Hattuteline: there's not a lot of detail behind what Shiren and Neji have been practicing because it would be rather boring to describe. They have just been working together every night rather extensively. Sort of like how Kakashi and Sasuke trained for a month and we only saw one shot of it. Hmm...about that spoiler. I did try to reduce it somewhat when I rewrote the summary, but I think it would be kind of impossible to not mention such things entirely, and plenty of other stories here have had manga spoilers in the summaries. Still, I'll think about it.  
  
Within the Ice  
  
The snow swirled around Draci Xi, and the wind whipped up his short hair as he stood atop one of the few tall buildings in Hidden Stone, looking to the north, and the tall peak that was Mt. Kemigari. The Second Exam was now onto day two, though it had as yet been only perhaps eighteen hours since everything began. They did not make it through yesterday, Xi recalled sourly. I would have been notified.  
  
It was not a pleasant thought, even though Xi knew that no team had likely made it through given the conditions of their start the day before. There would have been less than three hours before darkness fell, and in a blizzard. The record for blizzard conditions is six hours, and that team had two ninja whose eyes could see through pure darkness. So, they could still get there first.  
  
It did not calm Xi's mind, or keep him from staring off toward that mountain. He was confident in the team, surprisingly confident, far more than he had ever expected to be of this mismatched group of genin he had cobbled together. They are a true team, something I would not have expected. It was a surprise to Xi, and equally surprising was his concern over their fate. All three ninja, even Gosain, a man would ought to have no connection to him, were someone he wanted to succeed. He knew their talents, and their ability to work together, if they failed it would be a chronic unfairness. Surely their luck is not this bad?  
  
It was more than just concern for luck that had Xi worried; things were not as they should be here in the village of stone. There were dark currents in the town, and he had learned many things since yesterday. The Stone ninja were marshalling, though he could not say where they intended to go. They will launch no winter attacks, but this is a village that stands on the edge of a war. Why? Stone is strong, it could not be threatened now, certainly not in winter. Unless, and this was the thing that made Xi fearful. Unless the Akatsuki do something. A tiny rivulet of fear wrapped itself deep in the coils of Xi's gut. Nine ninja, and only two had been positively identified; though he was sure he knew the identity of a third. It would not be those two though, or her, but it could be any of the others. No one knows who commands that organization. It is surely not Uchiha Itachi. He is simply too young to have gathered such a group together. Besides, she is stronger than him, and she is not the leader, if it were she, I would have found her. There was some hidden mastermind in charge of the nine s-level criminals that represented the gravest threat to the ninja world, and Xi had no idea who it was. This disturbed him to no end.  
  
The hand of that mastermind moves here in Stone, and some plot of the Akatsuki manipulates this exam. Some plot involving Hidden Waterfall. Xi shivered in the air, though the cold did not touch him.  
  
Then he sensed a presence behind him, but did not bother to turn.  
  
"Looking for your intrepid genin? How unlike you." The voice was jovial, but mocking.  
  
"First Examiner, Special Jounin Chi Kiri, leader of the ultra-hostile environment reconnaissance and rescue squad. Teamwork specialist." Xi stated the list without inflection. "And a gossip whose come to bother a ninja better left in peace. You really should know better." He turned around and gave her a characteristic half smile, genuinely amused.  
  
"To think that my presence would brighten your mood." Kiri laughed at him. "To find the legendary Draci Xi so openly in my village was a shock, to find him sponsoring a team of genin heart-stopping. I think Tsuchikage almost swallowed his tongue when he received the news."  
  
"He certainly wasn't pleased to see me." Of course, Xi amended his words inside, that rocky old bastard never likes to see anyone.  
  
"You know," Kiri came to stand next to Xi at the railing as she spoke. "I never thought you'd be the one to send a team of students here, and I certainly didn't think I'd have to modify my exam because of it."  
  
"Modify your exam?" Xi raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Where did you dredge up those three Xi?" Kiri asked him. "They're so strange and suspicious I had to except them as answers on my test. The one who leads them especially." She stared deeply into Xi's eyes, but Xi gave no obvious reaction. "He didn't move for over fifteen minutes during the exam, and got no information from his teammates, but he found the buried team of ANBU. Who the hell is this Draci Neji?"  
  
He discovered the ANBU? Xi wondered. I'm impressed Neji, you're beginning to learn the full capability of those eyes you have. Xi mulled a bit before answering Kiri, not wanting to reveal too much. "He's a dragon ninja Kiri, did you think I would pick a weakling? I sponsored no genin for this exam, I sent you a team of chuunin who lack only the name portion of the rank."  
  
"Sponsored no genin?" Kiri repeated. "I suppose you might be right, but we'll see. The hardest part is still going on. There were some real talented ones in the mix this time, I wouldn't be surprised if they had trouble."  
  
Instead of instilling doubt, Kiri's words only strengthened Xi's belief in the team he had brought together. It's not my team, he knew, it is Neji's, and he is proving more and more competent. It was not simply luck that I found him clinging to life in the woods that day. I think the dragons had this in mind. He won't fail now. Xi gave Kiri a calm and quiet look, turning away from the mountain in the distance. "They will succeed, no simple test would stop any of those."  
  
"I hope you're correct Xi." She answered.  
  
What? The words fell onto the field of Xi's worry and the dragon ninja spun to stare into Kiri's eyes. "What?" He repeated out loud. "What is wrong with this exam? What do you know?"  
  
Kiri hesitated and fell silent, her mouth clamping shut. No, you will not avoid answering so easily. Xi put two fingers to Kiri's side. "Answer me before I blow open a hole in your side, Chi Kiri. I'm not going to be toyed with."  
  
"Fine Xi, have it your way." She spat at him and gave him a cold smile that conveyed every ounce of her anger. "Maybe this won't be just a test, there's something happening all right. All seven teams from Hidden Waterfall passed the first exam. They're out there now with your team. Waterfall is our ally, but certainly not yours, and I've heard you killed some of them not long ago. Those seven teams are out there with your team right now. Suspect something?" She laughed coldly into Xi's ear, dark and angry in her fury.  
  
Xi let her go silently. "Apologies." He said without even thinking about it. Seven teams from Waterfall? Twenty-one genin? Neji. This is very, very bad. "You may have made a terrible mistake in allowing this to happen, examiner." Xi said, his voice terrible and frozen, his speech formalized.  
  
"Why do you say that?" Kiri mocked.  
  
"Twenty-one Waterfall genin versus my three, you have caused a bloodbath on that mountain I'm certain. Waterfall is your ally, I'm sure it will go badly with them if you let seven teams of their genin get themselves killed."  
  
"You're confident." Kiri mocked him.  
  
No, I'm not confident, that's simply one possibility, and likely a slim one. "Or, if it turns out you have allowed some conspiracy to kill my fellow dragon ninja." Xi said in a voice like naked steel. "I will have to pay the debt back to Hidden Stone in full."  
  
Kiri blanched, and stepped back several steps, hardly able to control herself. "You wouldn't dare oppose us!" She managed, but it was weak.  
  
Xi replied with a half-smile, his eyes were still cold.  
  
"Regardless," Kiri began to croak out the words. "Regardless," She continued more steadily. "You will not interfere in the exam, no matter what happens."  
  
The dragon ninja's head dipped just the slightest amount, but his eyes burned.  
  
Kiri retreated from the rooftop.  
  
For long minutes Xi stood staring at where she had gone, contemplating the deaths of three genin. I dragged them here in the snow, brought them out of their homes and safe places to this dangerous realm. Have I brought them to die? For eight long years Xi had traveled without companions, without anyone to fight with him. His decisions had affected no one but himself, whether in battle, in espionage, or in training. That had all changed when he became Neji's sensei, he now realized. I am now responsible for more than myself. He knew that the rash statement he had made to Kiri was the truth. Should they die out on that far mountain of some Waterfall and Stone conspiracy he would set all his strength to tearing apart both villages, and to finding the Akatsuki mind he knew was behind it. That is the price of having companions; you must accept what happens to them as your responsibility, Xi remembered the words now, those words that had dictated eight years of his existence. Once more he swore to uphold them even as the snow fell steadily about him.  
  
"Worrying about your students?" A voice came from above. "You should worry about yourself."  
  
Xi spun, and dodged right, but no attack came. Instead, he felt and then saw new arrivals.  
  
Four figures took their place atop the roof with him. Four figures in the blue and brown garb of hidden waterfall, and brazenly bearing the forehead protectors of that village. They were three men and one woman, each with different weapons and a different stance, a full platoon of four ninja. Their eyes looked at Xi as if he were already dead.  
  
"Four jounin from Waterfall, those who came with the seven teams from that village." Xi muttered, looking at them. He raised his head and spoke to the one who stood openly in the center, a tall man. "Isn't four jounin a little excessive?"  
  
"It was determined that we should make absolutely sure neither you nor your measly little 'team' made it out alive." The man said openly. "You have quite the reputation, but no matter how strong you are you can't beat the four of us at once."  
  
"What about my team?" Xi asked, not bothering to reply to the threat.  
  
"It's seven on one. No matter how good they are there's no way to beat those odds, and in the snow nothing can match the Mizuho." The man laughed brutally. "Those genin are probably already dead."  
  
Xi clenched his jaw shut tightly. No way to know. No way to do anything about it. Still, you're underestimating Neji you Waterfall ninja. You might know about Ryukin, but I doubt you know about Kidomaru. You don't know what lengths Neji will go to accomplish his mission. Another thing occurred to Xi then, and a half-smile crept back into his face as he stared at the man. "Wusashu." He said, loud enough for only himself to here.  
  
A spasm of anger crossed the other ninja's face. "But you team doesn't matter." He said. "Since you won't survive another hour."  
  
Xi looked down the line of four ninja. He began with the far right. "Hmm... ranged combat specialist," He noted the easily reached shuriken and lack of large weapons. "Genjutsu specialist." That was the next one, a shorter man with cold eyes and less physical development than the others. "Ninjutsu specialist," the woman on the far left who held a double-bladed kunai. Finally, the man Xi had been speaking with, a man with a long sword strapped to his back. "Taijutsu specialist. A pretty good platoon, no medical ninja, but that was a good choice on your part. You're right, four jounin is too much for me to fight at one time, too much even for a Kage. So I won't fight you at once." Xi's hands flashed though seals at an unbelievable speed. "Dragon's eye no jutsu!"  
  
The dragon ninja's world went red, and the tendrils of fear became visible as those red-on-red eyes became his own. He saw the fear and projected it, wielding the otherworldly terror that a dragon, a spirit from beyond the minds of men, brings forth. For a second he injected the fear into the four jounin, only a second. He didn't have the chakra to use the jutsu to kill them, or even stun them all for long. They were too well trained. Yet for an instant they were stunned.  
  
Twelve shuriken passed through Xi's body an instant later, when movement returned to the four jounin.  
  
The body fell smoothly to the snow, and landed with a soft noise, blood leaking out.  
  
Then it dissipated in a puff of smoke, to be replaced with a large rock.  
  
"Damn you Xi!" The taijutsu specialist called. "But what does this buy you? We aren't foolish enough to separate, and there's no where to run except through snow and stone, our battlefields!"  
  
Xi did not reply. He was already a great distance away and continuing to run. He heard the words though, and he knew his answer. You underestimate me, Waterfall ninja. Eight years alone had taught Xi excellent tactics, and in any place he stayed for one night he always found a place that would serve as his battlefield of maximum advantage. He knew that place now, here in Stone. He had scouted it that first night, before returning exhausted from avoiding one of these same jounin, he now recognized, and the cold. Yet you didn't prevent me, I have a battlefield, and you will discover what it means to make me your opponent. He was not confident of victory by any means, indeed Xi's heart pounded with adrenalin and fear. This will be my most dangerous fight in a long, long time. He recognized that. I may not have been in this much danger for eight years. His mouth grew set at that point. I survived those eight years, and I will survive this.  
  
The jounin followed Xi, and the dragon ninja did not try to lose them. Instead his anger grew moment by moment as he dashed ahead of them through the village of stone and up into the mountains that abutted the city. The Tsuchikage has betrayed my team and me, he has allowed Waterfall to manipulate us and now he has sold our deaths to the Waterfall ninja for some unknown price. Damn you old man! I can do nothing but stop you now, and I will leave the bodies of four Waterfall jounin lying on the ice and snow as a lesson to those who try and toy with dragon ninja. Then I will hunt down the Akatsuki bastard who is causing on all this and he can face my wrath! Xi swore that to himself, the fury of his anger demanded it. His chakra was all gathered now, the killing force of a tremendous ninja. He knew what his strategy would be already, how he would deal with these enemies, so he sped ahead of them. If I arrive with enough time to spare then I can win, if not, it is hopeless. Xi's eyes narrowed, his vision still the red world of fear of the dragon's eye, a world he would not dismiss.  
  
He leapt past the walls of Stone, to the shocked glimpses of several chuunin guards. For a moment Xi's hand dropped to the broken hunter-nin mask on his right leg. Do I put that on again? He wondered. For a long moment he considered it, but then he recalled the faces of Neji, Shiren, and Gosain. No, I'll beat them without that, since this is not simply my own struggle.  
  
The dragon ninja moved with great swiftness up into the steep hillside, his footprints in the snow easily traceable by the pursuing jounin, who moved after him easily. Let him burn his chakra running like this, they thought. It only makes it easier when he stops.  
  
Where is it? Xi looked about trying to remember the site he had marked upon arriving in Stone, the battlefield he would need for this fight. He eyes darted about the red ice world of his vision. There! He saw the hole in the mountainside then, and shot inside it.  
  
It was an ice cave.  
  
This mountainside was covered by a great glacier that stood above the village of stone on these high peaks. Here Xi had found a hole in the glacier, a cavern of tubes and runnels in the ice, a place of nothing but frozen water, this was his battlefield, behind the mirrored and confusing walls that made vision tell lies and on the surface where a strong grip of chakra was necessary to avoid the long plunge.  
  
Swiftly Xi moved deep within, to a large open space in the lee of a great boulder that even the glacier had not removed. He recalled every turn and twist of the passage, knowing that to get lost in here meant death, that every twitch and motion of the glacier could close these passages and kill everyone within. A lethal place, for a lethal fight, let the Waterfall come, Xi grimaced.  
  
Standing there he took in a deep breath, and then his hands formed the needed seal pattern swiftly. Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle they went, and then he bit into his left hand, through the gloves he wore and spread his hands upon the ice. "A debt I call! Dragon summoning no jutsu!" The icy cavern howled with a slashing wind then, the force of a river running through grand rapids, forcing the eyes shut against the summons appearance.  
  
The dragon that floated before Xi was a glorious creature, thirty five feet long, with blue and green scales the color of the deepest lakes, his limbs were short, but they were webbed and strong, and a grand wavy fin ran the length of his body, to end in a fish's tail. The face was great and glorious, white horns stretched from the forehead above the wise and dark eyes, which shined like pearls from the depths. The whiskered maw above a multicolored beard was huge, with the grasping and gulping form of a great eel or shark, a jaw that could consume the better part of a man in a single motion. This was a Chiang Lung, a river dragon.  
  
The dragon stared at Xi for the barest instant before not even bothering to try and intimidate him. Xi's anger burned with lethal fury behind his own dragon's eyes, and fear was useless against him. "All honor to thee Chiang Lung Klishir, I require your aid against four jounin of Hidden Waterfall who have betrayed the Chuunin exam and seek my life. Use your powers to scatter them and hold back the own who wields the sword. I will deal with the rest." Xi was quick and cold with his speech, making his demands utterly clear.  
  
"I am bound by debt," The Chiang Lung replied. "Yet I would help you regardless, this is a heinous thing for the Waterfall to have done, and to think that it is the village I had long thought honored my kind the most. They shall be taught that a river does not leap from its course to defy the sky!" With that Klishir was gone, a streak of blue heading for the entrance of the caves. As he moved a cloud of storming water gathered about him, detaching from the ice and forming into a river that flew through the air about the dragon. The floodwaters were coming, freezing with the chill of the coldest ice, and with the flood lord at their head, thus the river dragon went to teach the errant ninja.  
  
Silently Xi wished Klishir luck, for he had sent the dragon into grave danger. Silently now he sped into a tunnel of ice, drawing the nekode over his hands, his gloves discarded as a hindrance. With perfection he channeled the continuous chakra through his legs to attach himself to the slippery ice and move. This was a frozen place, but the dragon ninja was not cold, indeed his footsteps left tiny puddles of water in his wake.  
  
The Chiang Lung's wrath came with a force that shook the glacier with its power, and the sound of breakwaters came from every direction at once, as all about the caves the ice seized the image of crashing waves and projected it a thousand times through the mirror of its endless surfaces.  
  
Now come the Waterfall jounin. Xi waited. Xi closed away his human vision, useless now in this place of darkness, and ice, where the flashes of movement revealed nothing but lies. Instead he relied on his other senses, and on the vision of the dragon, the red tendrils of creeping fear that could not be hidden nor quenched, for no human could move through these passages without fear.  
  
A sound in the darkness, and Xi sensed it, the scrape of a kunai against the ice. The ranged specialist. So Klishir succeeded in separating them. Now, I must act quickly.  
  
Xi dashed back through one tunnel, feeling the walls around him by the sound of moving ice and vibration as his chakra hit the floor, his mind perfectly focused, nothing touched him but his tracking, and he pinpointed his foe immediately.  
  
I have you! Xi opened his eyes.  
  
They stood at opposite ends of a long and thin tunnel, the Waterfall ninja looked down that passage, past the twisted and refracted image of a thousand Xi's upon the ice to see the dragon ninja staring up at him.  
  
Weapons flew, shuriken after shuriken, kunai after kunai, a seemingly endless supply, as the ranged specialist's jutsu conjured weapons from ice, air, water, and even dust. Some were illusory, some were real, but it didn't matter to Xi, he was already charging.  
  
Except, to call his motion a charge would have been a lie. Xi took a single step forward, and from there he took no more. Chakra channeled through his feet, suspending him upon the ice in a way that was devoid of friction. He slid forward at shocking speed, even as the endless torrent of missiles came back toward him. It would have seemed impossible to dodge, but Xi knew this battlefield, and his opponent did not.  
  
With a simple motion of his chakra Xi was sliding along the ceiling, then the right side of the passage, and more, circling round in defiance of gravity as the missiles flew harmlessly past in the center or to one side, meant to dodge a foe as if they moved inside a building, not one who skated like water flowing over the ice.  
  
The jounin's eyes went wide. "Impossible!" He sputtered, not understanding how Xi could control his chakra.  
  
It was too late. "Rend!"  
  
Draci Xi's motion did not even slow as he spent his outstretched arms past his opponent. The pattern of those wove a strange motion across the jounin's body, but it was still just as lethal.  
  
Even as the unfortunate jounin fell, Xi was proceeding past, distancing himself from the site of this encounter. One done, three remain.  
  
Xi looked around, closing his human vision off once again, relying on the dragon's eyes. Where, where? He wondered, searching.  
  
Then the walls moved.  
  
Shit! Xi skidded away on his belly, moving frictionless across the ice once more, as copies of a ninja detached themselves from the icy walls and moved toward him. Even as these icy clones formed together, Xi was tracking the source, tracking the fear, a thing truly absent from the clones. Of course, just because they aren't human doesn't mean they can't hurt me. He reminded himself.  
  
Bits and pieces of ice hurtled through the air at Xi, had he been looking with his own he would have seen shuriken, but now, his eyes closed, he could hear the difference. Like most genjutsu a technique like this was primarily visual, and the auditory portion could be broken apart and recognized for what it was.  
  
Too many ice shards though, I'll have to get rid of them. "Dragon wind!" Chakra coiled, knotted, and released in Xi's hands, and he shot the terrible blast of air down the hallway, blowing back a thousand icy shards and dissipating the clones. Damn! Wasted chakra, was all he thought as he did the move. Still, that little trick revealed your presence, and I've got you now.  
  
Xi opened his eyes again. He was standing in front of a wall of ice, one only perhaps a few inches thick. On the other side was the genjutsu specialist.  
  
The man had a cruel grin on his face. "It looks like I have you," He said, and Xi read the words on his lips. "Since my jutsu can work through this wall, while preventing you from breaking through."  
  
"Idiot." Xi replied. "You still don't understand why I chose this battlefield."  
  
The dragon ninja surged forward, throwing his body at the wall of ice. He impacted it, and then he felt the ice dissipate into water as he focused a source of energy within. Even as the wall suddenly melted around him and flooded the hall with steam Xi lashed out with his nekode, slicing into the jounin in front of him.  
  
The man fell back bleeding, as Xi stepped through a man shaped hole in the ice wall, water pooled at his feet.  
  
"How?" The Waterfall ninja croaked. "How can you do that?"  
  
"The Heart of the Dragon." Xi answered. "One of the artifacts the dragon ninja. It projects the endless heat of a dragon through the user. In this place no wall is a barrier to me."  
  
The man brought up a kunai, ready to fight. They closed.  
  
Xi spun a line in the ice with his foot, turning it to water instantly, then spun and maneuvered his foe over it. The jounin stepped into that cut in the ice and stumbled for a second, just long enough to open his guard and let Xi cut his throat open.  
  
The waterfall ninja fell, life swiftly leaking out of him, but even so, he was still forming seals. "I won't let it be that easy!" The man croaked.  
  
The dragon ninja ran.  
  
As he leapt back through the hole in the wall of ice a copy of a ninja formed up around him, formed of refracted light and floating crystallized water. Xi crashed through the image, but it burst into a thousand cutting stings upon his skin, and slashed into his clothes. Cuts opened on his skin, and he started bleeding in several places.  
  
"Shit!" Xi muttered. "I don't need this," he said as he ran hands over his limbs, scouring the ice shards off with chakra. "I can't waste the energy, there's two of them left, and those are the most dangerous ones."  
  
At least, I can let the dragon's eye go now; none of the others will bother with Genjutsu. Xi let the redness fade from his vision, returning to the pale and dark world under the ice that human sight, even one as well trained for darkness as his own, revealed. He started to walk slowly back to the large cavern. That's where the next one will be I'm sure. Xi recalled. Gah, using dragon's eye that much was exhausting, and I still have to fights to go. Less chakra, no dragon ally perhaps, and the two most dangerous of my opponents. This is not a good situation. I can't afford to get wounded during the next fight.  
  
There was no time to wait for his chakra to recover; Xi knew that much, or he'd end up trapped in the ice caves. That ninjutsu user will probably seal the entrance using Sunder once they realize their fellows are dead. I won't freeze while I have the Heart of the Dragon, he fingered the small redstone statuette under his flak jacket, but I could still easily die in here. So Xi put away his nekode, knowing the time for tricks with taijutsu was passed, and readied to fight ninjutsu on ninjutsu against the female ninja from waterfall. It will be her, he knew. The taijutsu user won't be through Klishir yet; hopefully he won't get through him at all.  
  
Suddenly the tunnel of ice opened up, revealing the cavern once again. Flickers of light came into this place, enough to just barely see by, though Xi still relied heavily on his other senses.  
  
The moment the tunnel opened Xi rushed forward and tucked into a roll that carried him clear across the cavern.  
  
He was barely in time. "Sunder!" A succession of blasts burst the tunnel he had come from and followed him around the cavern. Xi ended his roll and leapt up into the air, even as twin blasts of water surged down from the ceiling. The dragon ninja dodged aside, but got clipped by one of the blasts, and slammed into the wall. He hit only lightly, and grabbed the wall with his chakra so he hung there, finally having located his opponent.  
  
The Waterfall ninja stood with her back to the ice on the far side of the cavern, her fist clenched. "So you made it through the other two." She said with burning anger. "That's two more deaths the waterfall will get back when I kill you here."  
  
She's fast! Xi thought as he dodged aside again, blasts of water and sunder following him as he ran along the wall of ice, skidding and leaping about to avoid the assault. The Waterfall ninja's hands were a blur as she formed seals, bringing out jutsu after jutsu. Still, she can't keep this up, and until she tries something else, I'll just keep dodging. In this room my ability to move along the ice means she won't possibly hit me again with these tricks. Xi's arm hurt slightly from the attack he had received, but it wasn't major, and certainly not enough to slow him down.  
  
This back and forth went on for a few moments, before the jounin from waterfall ran out of breath. "How...can...you...do...that?" She wheezed. "There's no way you should be able to dodge my jutsu!"  
  
"I don't need to explain things to the dead." Xi answered.  
  
"Don't...think I'm beaten yet." The lady ninja breathed. Her hands formed a careful sequence of seals.  
  
Bad! Xi knew. That jutsu will blow this cavern apart. I have to stop her now!  
  
He leapt off from the wall.  
  
She completed her jutsu. "Waterfall Element: Torrent Blast no Jutsu!"  
The ice all about the waterfall jounin exploded in an outward burst of power, flung into the air as it broke apart and shattered, filling the air of the cavern with water and ice shards, all screaming upward and outward, set to impale Xi on a thousand icy razors. The power of a waterfall in flood striking the earth made more powerful by striking ice instead, an ultimate destruction move.  
  
But one that will fail! Xi's own hands flashed through seals, and the final one came quickly Breath. He brought his hands to his face, thumb touching thumb, index and center finger touching, and extended beyond them, the last two fingers, an open spread pattern. He breathed in, and felt the power gather deep in his lungs and stomach, and then burst outward in his own most powerful dragon ninjutsu. "Dragon breath no jutsu!" The words slid from Xi's mouth in a voice not his own, the voice of a dragon, and they were followed by a single great bolt of lightning, a shaped and focused blast to rip and burst and burn. It leapt outward through the ice, and then sped up, leaping from ice shard to ice shard, even as the lady jounin screamed in shock. For by filling the air with ice the dragon breath surged toward her faster than her own jutsu rose to meet Xi.  
  
The first jutsu to impact was the one that slew. Lightning poured into the jounin, a focused burst of power of tremendous destructiveness. Her lungs burst apart, her brain surged and burnt, and her heart stopped dead, even as flesh charred. Life vanished in a single instant of lightning.  
  
A thousand shards of ice lost their impetus and dropped from the sky. Some nevertheless made it to Xi from their momentum, but though they slapped him and some even penetrated his skin, nothing made it through his flack jacket.  
  
Xi dropped to the ground, winching. I didn't want to do that. Most of my chakra is gone now. I probably can't sustain many more moves, the dragon breath always kills when it strikes, but the power it demands... I simply can barely continue. That means I have little choice but to fight that taijutsu wielder with taijutsu. That is not what I hoped for. Xi pulled shards of ice out of his flesh and bandaged the wounds simply, enough to cover and mask where he had been most seriously damaged, and little more. Then he began another slow walk, one opponent remained, and that one was the most dangerous of all.  
  
Out on the mountainside the snow had stopped, and the village of Hidden Stone awakened below. The clouds streamed by overhead, as this, the second day of the Chuunin exam second stage, continued.  
  
Draci Xi emerged into the blank flat light of this day from the ice. Before him he saw a scene of destruction.  
  
Ice and stone lay scattered all about, broken and bloody in places. In others, smoking, or splashed with great torrents of water. Great claw marks had rended portions of the stone mountainside, and it looked as if two demons had fought here.  
  
Perhaps they did. Xi thought, as he stepped outward to see this devastation. In the center of his vision was a single thing, the body of the Chiang Lung, Klishir. The dragon's body had not lost its majesty in death, even though great cuts and gashes rent its side, and the eyes were dimmed. Even now the body was slowly fading back into the world of spirits, and would be gone in hours, seemingly having never been in this world. Atop that body, desecrating the memory of it was the Taijutsu specialist from Hidden Waterfall, his body and long sword covered in the thick blood of a dragon.  
  
"Damn you forever!" Xi spat at the man, seeing that. Klishir, I am sorry, so terribly sorry to have brought this on you. I will pay the debt back right now, with this one's life. "What is your name?" Xi bit the words with fury and agony, chakra burning behind every pore.  
  
"Tanamke Geshen." The Waterfall Jounin said levelly. "You have killed three of my comrades Draci Xi, and all I have to show for it is this dead beast that fades away. I'll need your head to even come close to settling the score."  
  
"Really?" Xi mocked, the anger a seeing a dragon dead surged in him. This marked only the fourth time in his life Xi had seen a dragon die, the creatures were mighty and powerful. Klishir had been fully adult, as powerful a dragon as Xi could reasonably call and still fight fully himself. That this jounin had killed the dragon without being wounded, even if Klishir had been forced to fight all four for some moments, it spoke to the man's power and cruelty. I will kill you, even should we both die, there is no way you will live through this. There is only one person who has ever killed a dragon before my sight and lived, and there will not be a second. Xi swore the words violently inside, and drew forth his nekode once again. "You have declared war upon the Dragon Ninja Tanamke Geshen, you and whomever sent you. I do not know that person, but I will kill you here, by the debt I owe to the one I summoned, I will see it done."  
  
"You are weakened, wounded, your dragon is dead and your chakra is gone. I am among the best of Waterfall's jounin." Geshen answered. "Come to me and die yourself."  
  
"We shall see." Xi said. His eyes narrowed to slits.  
  
A long moment passed as neither ninja moved, and then the soft wind blew some snow off a rock above. It stuck the ground with a soft and gentle sound.  
  
The two ninja charged.  
  
Sword met nekode with the ring of steel on steel. They split apart, and then again, and a third strike. Then both men stood steady upon the snow.  
  
Geshen fell into a crouch, taking his katana in both hands, setting it forward, edge curling upward, to charge. "Waterfall Crashing Assault." He whispered.  
  
Xi dropped backward, bringing his left leg back, and both knees bent. His hands extended, left arm bent, right arm reaching forward. "Jinnen." He spoke to the wind.  
They charged again.  
  
Xi's strikes came in quick and fast, and his left hand cut in, slashing deep through his enemy's flak jacket, scoring a vulnerable line, and drawing blood.  
  
Geshen brought his katana up at Xi's right. The dragon ninja blocked, and the jounin twisted the blade, severing the tines of the nekode and sending them spinning down the cliffside.  
  
Xi leapt backward in surprise.  
  
"The breaking force of water can grind down any obstacle should it strike it correctly." Geshen looked into Xi's eyes. "But you cut me, I dislike being cut. Now you will feel my ultimate attack."  
  
His sword swept downward through the snow, and came up trailing a stream of water, sharpened to a mirrored pointed edge. "Waterfall's Razor Edge!" Geshen attacked.  
  
Damn! Xi leapt backward, and the edge of water curled around to follow him. He rolled over the ground in a desperate avoidance, stones jutting painfully into him, bruising his muscles. I can't get close enough to kill him without a weapon! Xi grimaced, and then launched himself upward on the slope. To stand breathing hard on an outcropping some distance away.  
  
Water danced in a circle around Geshen. "What good does it do to fall back?" He laughed. "You haven't the strength left to run away and avoid me. Come down here and die, those nekode of yours will never penetrate my guard."  
  
"They might not, but you are a fool to think I have no other weapons." Xi returned.  
  
"I see no sword or whip or spear upon your garb, Draci Xi." He mocked. "But if you won't come down, I'll come up after you!"  
  
Geshen leapt.  
  
I haven't much chakra left, Xi knew, but it will have to be enough. His hands went through a pattern of seals, and then he brought them together, palm to palm.  
  
"What's this?" Geshen laughed. "Do you have enough chakra to try and kill me?"  
  
"Lightning Style: Lightning Swords no Justsu!" Xi brought his hands apart, linking forefinger and middle, ring and pinky, and the thumbs alone, forming a triangle of his hand. As he peeled his hands apart, sparks flashed and arced between them, and then between the triangles of his hands. Then they thrashed outward to a point in the distance, where the three streams of electricity met, and leapt back and forth, sparks playing in the air. From each hand then extended a cackling blade of electricity, two and a half feet long, the Lightning Swords.  
  
Geshen's blade of water extended out ten feet or more to strike at Xi, and then met the lightning swords.  
  
Bolts of power arched up that watery blade and down the steel one beyond, to surge into Geshen.  
  
The Waterfall jounin reacted instantly as the first tendril of pain touched him, his watery blade fell away and he altered the attack to come in with only the steel edge.  
  
Xi placed his lightning swords up to block him.  
  
Geshen dared not touch the blades, and so they went back and forth, until the Waterfall jounin leapt off the outcrop again. "Impressive." He commented. "I never knew lightning had such a technique. But it must draw tremendous chakra, and you can't maintain it for long." He raised his blade to guard. "When it is gone, I'll run you through."  
  
He's right, damn him. Xi thought, and his taijutsu is too good, I'll never get a good attack in. I have only seconds left to maintain this technique. A pity. Xi decided. He looked out toward Mt. Kemigari in the distance. It seems we both truly do have to fight the same way, Neji.  
  
Xi launched himself at Geshen.  
  
The Waterfall jounin brought his blade in through a simple, lethal cut, intending to force Xi away, taking the angle of any attack by the lightning sword out of consideration.  
  
Except he made two mistakes, the same ones Xi knew he would make. First, he assumed the lightning sword was like a material weapon, and when Xi brought his right hand over the Geshen's sword itself, his crackling weapon passing around and through it, he saw the revelation dawn in the jounin's eyes. The other mistake was that Xi was a dragon ninja, and that he would not accept the bite to his side. Xi's right leg came up and out, and Geshen's weapon sliced through the flesh terribly, scouring down to the bone, a stinging cold sensation that was doused in heat moments later as blood splashed out.  
  
Xi's lightning sword connected with Geshen's flesh.  
  
The Waterfall ninja's muscles spasmed first, and then his nerves burned, and his blood boiled, Xi held the weapon of electricity and chakra in place, many long, long seconds, as the surging power burned its way inward and turned the connections that hold the body together to dust. Geshen's eyes went completely white, as everything was burned away, and then Xi let the lightning sword go, and the jounin fell to the ground, dead.  
  
Four, all four, done.  
  
Xi's right hand reached down, grabbing bandages out of his flak jacket, both hands moving to his leg, the movement automatic, binding the brutal cut. He did it without thinking, for his thoughts were elsewhere. Klishir, the debt is repaid, and I am still sorry, terribly sorry. Neji, it seems that you will have to fight your war with only your teammates. I have been stopped here. Looking up into the sky Xi made another decision. Whoever you are, you Akatsuki bastards, I had to kill four jounin because of you today. Don't think I won't seek to pay that debt back as well.  
  
Slowly the dragon ninja began the long painful trek down to Hidden Stone and medical care, while the chuunin exam went on. 


	19. Atop the Heights

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: So, the resolution of the second exam cometh, in all its gritty nastiness. Sorry to keep everyone waiting. Unfortunately, I will have to keep people waiting for the next chapter, since spring break occurs now and it won't be until next Sunday before I can post again (though I will definitely be working on this during that time).  
  
Thanks to reviewers, and some replies: Orlha: I'm glad the tiring aspect of Xi's fight came across, exhaustion is difficult to picture in writing, and yet it's a significant aspect of how Naruto fights get resolved.  
  
Hautteline: Yes the fights were ended somewhat un-naruto-esque, but that's mostly the point, that's the difference in the way a dragon ninja fights versus other ninja, destroying the enemy with a single lethal attack. Oh, and those jounin are more like the Genma/Kurenai level of skill, not Gai/Kakashi, Waterfall jounin aren't as capable as left jounin. And Xi, is significantly stronger than Kakashi anyway.  
  
Atop the Heights  
  
With the refined vision of the Byakugan Neji glanced out through the light snow, as the dawn broke over the mountainside behind a cover of clouds, and the world became light once again. He, Shiren, and Gosain stood on the edge of a canyon, already having fought one battle and killed two foes. A kilometer of brutal slope rose above them, to meet a small shrine atop the mountain peek. On that slope was naught but ice, rock, and snow, a brutal expanse devoid of life and unsuited for the living to journey upon. Yet they would have to cross that ice. Nineteen Waterfall ninja stand in our way. Neji saw. We are stopped.  
  
"Damn it! Damn it! Damn it!" Gosain spat. "What the hell is this? The examiners should throw them all out for this bullshit conspiracy trick!"  
  
Neji heard the frustration, the anger in Gosain's words, and inside he echoed it, but he was already past that. "This is no longer an exam," he told his teammates softly. "The examiners have allowed this, and now the Waterfall ninja are our enemies."  
  
"I agree Neji." Shiren said beside him, her voice still slightly pained. "But how can we fight all of them?"  
  
There were no good answers, but Neji was searching for them frantically. If it were two teams, or even three, I would say we should fight without hesitation, we could still win, and it would simply be a difficult challenge. This though, this isn't the exam anymore, this is a war, and Shiren and Gosain are not meant to be part of it, this is between Waterfall and me. What choice do I make? Thinking of his companions, and knowing that the last fight had cost Gosain much of his chakra and Shiren had been forced to injure herself to win, Neji made his decision. "We retreat." He said finally.  
  
"What?" Gosain asked, still angry.  
  
"We cannot fight and win, and this is not what was supposed to happen. So we retreat, perhaps we can lose them and come around to approach the peak another way, or we can go back down to the gate and leave the exam. If the examiners have allowed this they might try to kill us even if we win through." Neji said, still quietly. He could hardly believe he said the words. Backing down from a challenge was not something he did lightly. This is not worth our lives though, it is not a mission, it is a test, and I will not have three people die and kill some great number of Waterfall ninja just for a test if I can prevent it.  
  
"Damn!" Gosain muttered. "I hate to say it, absolutely hate to say it, but you're right."  
  
Neji nodded. "Ah."  
  
"Well, then we can run along the top of this canyon for a while." Gosain said. "Maybe we can get back into the trees and lose them."  
  
Neji was about to confirm that course, but then he saw all the Waterfall ninja move. Each team at six different points where they stood had pulled out a scroll. Now they crushed them against the snow.  
  
A great cracking noise split the air.  
  
Impossible! Neji thought as he saw it happen.  
  
A gigantic crack opened in the ice above, separating from the rock. A thousand cracks shot through the icy block, and then it shattered.  
  
Shiren and Gosain had turned to look and their eyes were wide with terror.  
  
The ice began to fall.  
  
Avalanche! The word rang through all three ninja minds as they saw that form move. The mountainside was tumbling down toward them at tremendous speed, a force of power so massively destructive that it would sweep them aside as if they were but specks.  
  
"Run!" Neji ordered, and they spun and began to scramble down the slope, burning away chakra to run over the snow.  
  
"We can't outrun it!" Gosain shouted.  
  
"I know." Neji answered. "But we must buy some time, to think of some plan."  
"Could we simply run up it?" Shiren asked. "If we jump the leading edge couldn't we simply run across the top, it would be difficult, but-"  
  
"It could work!" Gosain said. "It's insane, but it could work!"  
  
"No." Neji told them in a voice like death itself. "It will not. See for yourselves."  
The two cloud ninja turned their heads to see something out of nightmares. The mountain fell toward them in a torrential blast of ice and snow that could bury cities, and it was burning.  
  
"The power of Mizuho." Neji said as they ran. "It will be all of Misain Seve's strength, but if we touch the avalanche, it will mean death."  
  
"Then there's no escape." Gosain said, and all the energy seemed to instantly leave him. "Even if we tried to get above it, or avoid the brunt of the blast by climbing some rise, we'd still get exposed to some effect. What demons created that bloodline technique?"  
  
"The demons of Waterfall." Shiren said sadly. "What an unfortunate way for this to end, burned and crushed by ice."  
  
Waterfall indeed. Thought Neji. Waterfall? Something in that word brought and image to his mind. Then he recalled the last waterfall he had seen. The water, it flows out and over, so that there is a clear space behind that is untouched. That is it!  
  
"Gosain, quickly, where does the canyon turned so that it runs across the slope." Neji demanded.  
  
"There is a point not far, but what does it matter?"  
  
"If we cling to the canyon wall the avalanche will flow over and into the canyon, and we can avoid it." Neji told him.  
  
For an instant some hope seemed to return to Gosain, but then he stopped. "No, ice is heavier than water, it would fall directly downward, pushed by the force of what's behind it. You'd have to burrow into the wall to avoid it."  
  
"Neji, your Kaiten!" Shiren spoke up now. "It creates a crater when used. You can drive a wide hole into the canyon wall for us to shelter in."  
  
It could work. Neji saw as Shiren made the suggestion. "Yes! Hurry!" Was all he said, and then leapt forward.  
  
The avalanche moved with ever increasing speed, and it was thunderous and deafening behind the three ninja when they finally reached the appropriate spot in the canyon. They had mere seconds ahead of it. Neji ran down the side of the canyon walls, only a few feet below the lip. "Kaiten!" He screamed the word with his throat raw from running, focusing forth a tremendous amount of chakra.  
  
The force of the escaping chakra blasted a tremendous gouge into the wall, a circle of destruction just deep enough to shelter the three.  
  
Gosain jumped in next, slamming his pole into the rock, forcing electricity down it so it would penetrate. "Grab hold and force yourself into the wall, every inch will matter!"  
  
The three hung there, crammed in as tight as possible, even closer than they had been the night before, forcing themselves against cold and sharp stone until it hurt, and the chakra seemed to slip away.  
  
Then the avalanche came.  
  
It burned as it poured over the side of the canyon, a hellish torrent lit with blinding fires. Ice and snow dropped downward into the depths then, falling the long way to strike with booms louder than the greatest thunderclap from any storm. They passed so close that the wind of their passage sucked the air away and tried to pull the ninja from the stone, and all the air was gone, so that they could not breathe. Still, the three hung in place.  
  
It is rising. Neji saw of the canyon floor below, the avalanche is filling it. Surely it will slide down the canyon and make space. He hoped for that, for there was nothing he could do. That stream of rock and stone and snow passed over their heads now, and nothing could be done to avoid it. Endless instants passed by without breath or motion, as all Neji could do was hang on and watched the snowy floor below rise ever higher.  
  
Will we die buried like this? He wondered. Cemented together like some hideous sculpture?  
  
I refuse to die like this, cheated by fate! Neji swore.  
  
And then there was silence.  
  
It was an instantaneous transition, the roaring and crashing destruction was gone, and the rising wall of ice had stopped a few feet below them. The supreme tactic of Waterfall, the burning avalanche, had ceased. We live? Neji wondered, and then he felt Shiren ad Gosain move against him, and heard the brutal ringing in his strained ears. Yes, we are alive.  
  
Slowly they emerged and crawled up from the canyon, or what was left of it. All around was a seen of absolute devastation. For all directions, above and below, east and west, the land had been scrubbed free of everything, taken by the avalanche. Now there was nothing but snow and some patches of scoured ice. A wasteland.  
  
Neji looked up the slope, and there stood the Waterfall ninja, unscathed and vile, blue blots against the colorlessness of the world they had just made.  
  
"I hope no one else died." Shiren commented from Neji's side, her voice sounding terribly soft and empty in Neji's ears, though his hearing was returning.  
  
"Worry about them later, Shiren." Gosain said, gruff and tired. "We're still in trouble." He looked at Neji. "So, what now? Try to outrun them?" Gosain asked, expecting affirmation.  
  
"No." Neji said, and just so he could hear himself clearly he repeated it. "No. There is nowhere to run, now. All is exposed and empty. We must fight."  
  
"How?" Gosain railed. "They're nineteen, we're three. You called this a war Neji, but while they might be a small army we aren't even a platoon!"  
  
He's right. Neji reminded himself. There are nineteen Waterfall ninja out there, and even if they depleted their chakra with that trick, we aren't nearly at full strength either. We can't do this by ourselves. Then he laughed. "We aren't even a platoon? Ha!" Neji's eyes quieted and instant later and went terribly cold.  
  
"You're right Gosain, I did call this a war." Neji said, his voice steady and terrible. "Dragon ninja fight wars, and we fight them in one way. We kill as many of the enemy as quickly as possible." He recalled Xi's words. "So, stand back. I'll grant us an army."  
  
There was an image in Neji's mind now, an image both majestic and terrible. Gosain and Shiren moved back a step, even as the Waterfall ninja above them began to advance. Neji called upon that image. His hands formed the seals. Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle. Neji brought his left hand to his face, and bit the index finger lightly, drawing a single drop of blood. He brought out as much chakra as he could, every last drop that he could feel within, all the energy he found buried in the depths of his system, remembering that face, the one he had seen but once before, but the one face he trusted to bring forth now. Draci Neji's hands slammed down upon the ice. "Dragon Summoning no Jutsu!"  
  
Wind hollowed, ice slashed through the air, and the clouds spun.  
  
Then a fourth being was there at the canyon's edge. Eighteen feet long he was, and glowing like the sun in this snowy sky. His eyes were red upon red, and they met Neji's with the gaze of eternity.  
  
The T'ien Lung, Wusashu.  
  
Those red upon red eyes stared at Neji, projecting tremendous fear from beyond this world. Some of that fear spilled over into Shiren and Gosain, and they were frozen in terror. Neji felt that fear, and he threw it out of his body almost instantly. He had just survived the terrors of an avalanche and the hellish fires of Mizuho, he was not going to be intimidated right now, not before his teammates who he must save this way. "All honor to thee, T'ien Lung Wusashu, the Wind that Flows Beneath Leaves. I have your stone." Neji held up the brilliant aquamarine he had carried since facing Ryukin. "And I must demand a service from you."  
  
"Throw that stone here, dragon ninja." Wusashu replied.  
  
Neji did as the dragon ninja requested, and was shocked to watch the T'ien Lung swallow the gem whole. "What is your request, summoner?" The dragon asked imperiously.  
  
"There are nineteen Waterfall ninja on the slopes above, and they have all attacked me and my team." Neji said coldly. He paused before saying his next words, hesitating, but then he continued. I have to do this, no matter how terrible it will be. I can't let Shiren and Gosain die. "Remove them."  
  
"A great request this is." Wusashu replied. "I am bound by my summons to serve, but if you wish to make this debt manageable, you and your team must fight as well. I am not going to throw myself at them for you, even if they have betrayed the chuunin exam." Wusashu's eyes flashed with wrath when he said that. "These waterfall ninja, have they no sense of honor?" He shrieked at the sky.  
  
"I will fight. I cannot speak for my companions." Neji answered.  
  
"I, I will not hesitate to fight beside such a creature." Gosain said quietly, the awe deep in his voice.  
  
"Neji, I am going to fight along with you." Shiren said calmly.  
  
"Then the bargain is made!" Wusashu thundered.  
  
The approaching Waterfall ninja looked up into the sky in shock as the T'ien Lung launched himself like a bolt of molten gold into the sky, rolling and surging with a mighty roar that shook the very sky. "Come puny honorless ones! Feel the wrath of the lords of the sun!" The dragon began.  
  
Neji, Gosain, and Shiren raced up the slope after them. Neji was conscious that even if he had promised to fight, his chakra was almost entirely gone; he could feel only the barest remnant within him. I will have to rely only on the Jyouken. It is all I can manage now.  
  
One team of Waterfall ninja had advanced before the rest. It was these who first felt the wrath of Wusashu.  
  
"Idiot mortals!" The dragon thundered as shuriken bounced uselessly off his scaled hide. He crashed down onto them, heedless of hard stone. Neji, with the Byakugan, saw the slaughter begin in every detail.  
  
A single swipe of a massive claw took one ninja's head from his body, while the dragon's jaws snaked over to rip the leg off another. The third ninja tried to stab a kunai into Wusashu's flank only to thrown backward by the lash of the dragon's tail, sharp scales ripping him open cross the belly and laving him lying broken upon the snow.  
  
The dragon roared his triumph and launched into the air again, to charge a group of three clustered teams to one side. "The others are yours, Draci Neji!" Wusashu's voice carried over the winds.  
  
Wusashu engaged nine ninja, five were already slain, and one team, that of Mizain Seve, yet remained above. That left four to fight with Neji's team.  
  
They met in a lat saddle scourged clear by the avalanche. No words were spoken.  
  
Shuriken ripped clear of hands, and the battle began.  
  
"Lightning element: Spark Star no jutsu!" Shiren called, unleashing her weapons.  
  
Two of the ninja laughed, for she had left herself open to attacks.  
  
They did not understand that Shiren and Neji, having trained against each other so much, now knew how to combine their fighting.  
  
Neji leapt in front of Shiren, and grabbed kunai and shuriken from the air, tossing them aside.  
  
Shiren's jutsu wrapped around one of the waterfall ninja. The star hit, and collapsed in, driving points and lightning energy into the man, knocking him to the ground, twitching and bleeding.  
  
Gosain took the other two. "Chain Style: Stormcloud Spin!" His chains ripped around in a spiral all about him, blocking attacks and clipping one of his opponents, knocking her away.  
  
"Three on three now!" Gosain called.  
  
"Shiren, take your enemy!" Neji called, and turned to the other.  
  
Gosain's chains continued to whip around, as his opponent struggled to regain her feet. The older ninja beat her back, not letting her up, not allowing her to regain equilibrium, waiting for an opening.  
  
Shiren set against her foe, each holding kunai, eyes focused.  
  
Neji was left to face the enemy who had evaded Gosain's chains.  
  
"So, the dragon ninja huh?" The man smiled cruelly. "Then I'll kill you and get promoted for certain."  
  
The ninja's hands flashed through seals. "Earth Element: Ground Spear no jutsu!" He spat out a gob of mud, and the ground beneath it formed into a long spear, as wide as a man's chest, and launched itself towards Neji.  
  
Neji dodged aside, seeing the move. He moved in to attack.  
  
The ninja put his hand to the ground. "Earth Element: Ground Thorn no jutsu!" Spines of rock surged upwards all around where he was standing, bending and moving forward to impale Neji.  
  
He dodged backwards.  
  
Gosain had driven his opponent far back down the slope, and she was slipping and losing her grip on the ice, but the other ninja needed to finish the fight soon, he was tiring obviously, losing the strength to wield his chains.  
  
Shiren and her foe spared back and forth, kunai striking kunai, their battle completely undecided.  
  
Neji was having trouble of his own, as his opponent used several more ground spears against him, but he could dodge them without too much difficultly.  
  
To the west he saw Wusashu engaged in combat. The dragon lay about against his foes, diving down from the sky and then leaping back upwards again, spinning in midair or paralyzing with his eyes. The ninja who opposed the dragon had no way to stop the mighty creature. Though they might buffet Wusashu with jutsus, there was truly no contest. The dragon was simply killing them slowly, claws, and fangs ripping them apart.  
  
Breathing hard, Neji's opponent turned to face him. "I guess I have to bet everything against you, dragon ninja."  
  
That's bad, Neji recognized a complex seal pattern being formed, and  
charged.  
  
Beneath his feet the ground turned to mud.  
  
What? Neji strove to move, but the mud had him. It's not genjutsu, so how did he form the mud without any seals. Then he saw the answer. Those stone spikes he made! They're melting into mud, and I'm constrained. Neji struggled to free himself. I should be able to cut the chakra in this mud and break free, but I don't have enough to blast all this mud away and get lose, and I can't Kaiten.  
  
Below them Gosain's opponent stumbled, finally providing the older ninja with the chance he wished. Chains snaked in on both sides; their wicked kunai ends looking for flesh. The female ninja managed to deflect them aside, but they slammed down into the ground. "Chain Style: Ground Thunderclap!" The chains hit the stone with the force of a thunderclap, driving energy through it and into the female ninja. Her knees wobbled and she fell to the ground. Chains wrapped around her instantly. The older ninja looked up and saw Neji's situation, but he was too far away to do anything. Gosain's face went dead.  
  
Shiren saw as well, and her face fell as mud trapped Neji, but then she gritted her teeth. The ninja before her threw a kunai, and Shiren blocked it with one of her own, which clanged away to stick in the stone. Neji saw it. She's going too...  
  
One foot spun backwards, carrying Shiren in a mad spin down the slope. The waterfall ninja looked on in puzzlement.  
  
"Lighting anchor!" Shiren tugged hard on the wire to her sunken kunai, and switched one spin for another. The chorded lightning arched around toward the other ninja, whose eyes went wide in fear.  
  
Yet Neji was in even greater danger. "You can block any kunai, but you can't block this." His hands formed seals. "Waterfall element: Searing water surge no jutsu!" A shimmering blast of water was released from the ninja's mouth, a razor edged fan of water running down slope to cut Neji in two.  
  
Can't spin, can't move, can't block. Is this the end? Neji stared at the coming blast.  
  
"Lightning element: Swarming spark wall!" Shiren's voice broke through the doom in front of Neji. A wall of shuriken, held together by an endless shower of sparks blasted into the razored edge taking Neji. Suddenly Shiren was in front of him, her left hand holding a seal steady, and she pulled a kunai from Neji's pouch and hurled it through the mess her jutsu had just made to bury itself in the Waterfall ninja's eye.  
  
At the same time a pair of shuriken struck her left side. The ninja she had been fighting had struck when Shiren released her lightning anchor.  
  
"Why?" That was all Neji managed to say through his shock.  
  
"Teammates protect each other." Shiren said through her bitter pain.  
  
"Then you can die together." The remaining Waterfall ninja sneered.  
  
"Go to hell!" Gosain's steel pole, bereft of chains, came crashing down on the man's skull with a brutal crunching sound.  
  
Neji grabbed Shiren, holding her up. "Don't fall." He said sadly. "This isn't over."  
  
"Indeed it isn't!" A cruel and childlike voice came from above. Mizain Seve and his two companions, Waterfall ninja with cruel and hungry eyes, looked down upon them.  
  
"So you are the child who has called all this!" An inhuman voice roared above the winds as Wusashu moved between both teams of ninja. "This boy dares proclaim vengeance and break the traditions of the Chuunin exam. I think not!" Wusashu's head turned, his golden form was covered in blood and many of his beautiful scales were scraped. He appeared to be a terrifying demon. "Draci Neji. You will stand there. I will deal with this idiot child who plays with powers he cannot comprehend."  
  
Neji managed to nod with what little strength remained to him.  
  
"You will not stop me, you, you Monster!" Seve laughed. "It is still snowing, and I have recovered enough of my chakra. Burn demon, burn!"  
  
"Mizuho: Rain of Fire!" Seve's hands formed into a single seal, and all around him, fire spread, first it ran down his hands, but then it leapt onto a snowflake, and from there another snowflake, and another, and another, until the whole of the sky seemed to be burning. These drops of water then ceased their suspension in the air, and began to fail.  
  
Neji grabbed Shiren and leapt away, knowing he had to get away from those flames. Gosain likewise leaped down the slope, hastily enough that he skidded and rolled in the snow instead of making a solid landing.  
  
Wusashu stood in the center of that fiery rain, watching it pour down with his red eyes. The fire touched his scales and the blood that coated them and a great gout of red steam rose up, obscuring everything, even the Byakugan could not reach inside that red haze. Are you alive, Wusashu? Neji wondered, and he desperately needed the dragon to be so. Shiren was injured, Gosain exhausted, and he had no chakra left. I have summoned you to fight, and you must win!  
  
The red haze spun, a tornado of blood in the air, and a great blast of wind burst outward, sending the burning rain all across the snow, where it fizzled into nothing.  
  
Six pairs of eyes peered into the haze as it was flung away.  
  
"FOOL!!!" Came the voice of Wusashu in a roar so powerful in blew all the ninja to the ground.  
  
The dragon hovered above the crouching Mizain Seve, revealed once again in his golden glory. The blood was gone and the dragon was unstained against the sky, even as the sun suddenly broke through the clouds in the east, bathing the snow in brilliant light. A circle of sunlight fell upon Wusashu and he burned like the sun. "I am a T'ien Lung, a lord of the heavens, forged of the sun itself, your paltry Mizuho cannot harm me!" Wusashu shook his brilliant mane, reflecting a rainbow of colors that delighted the eyes. "If you love fire so much boy, then I will teach you what it truly means to BURN!"  
  
Wind poured into the T'ien Lung's mouth, and then he let loose the breath once more, but now it was fire.  
  
The dragon's breath, a surging flame that burned so hot as to be white before the eyes. A brilliant cone of fire that Neji could not bear to see, even with the Byakugan to aid him.  
  
The fires enveloped Mizain Seve and his teammates, and when it was gone there was nothing but dust upon the mountainside.  
  
Gosain turned his head and retched.  
  
Shiren gripped Neji's hand and shoulder like it was the only thing left in the world, and Neji returned the grip just as hard. That is the ultimate power of the dragon? It is terrible. I cannot imagine it. Seeing the emptiness where there had just moments ago been men, Neji's mind rebelled. Never again, I can't do this again. Wusashu has killed fifteen ninja, all dead and gone, blood and dust on the mountainside. It is too terrible. I cannot look at him.  
  
The dragon fluttered before Neji, who did not met his gaze, but the Byakugan remained, and it revealed all sides, so the glorious terror of Wusashu remained unavoidable. "Draci Neji, I have done as you demanded in your summons. You owe me a great debt now. In the future you will be forced to pay it back."  
  
Then the dragon was gone, and the three ninja were left alone on the mountain.  
Gosain limped up to Neji and Shiren, his energy all but gone. He was dragging his chains behind him. "Somehow, I survived even that." He began. Then he stopped for a moment, looking at Shiren and Neji. "So did you." He added quietly. "Thanks, both of you."  
  
"Indeed, to you as well." Neji managed to mutter.  
  
Shiren just smiled at both of them, all she had the strength for then, as the cold seeped into them and they felt the weight of battle and blood clinging to them. Neji felt the frozen blood in his hair now. It will not come out. He decided. Better it should stay anyway.  
  
Neji let the Byakugan evaporate, gone with the last of his chakra. He looked up the slope. It was shear, but much of the ice was gone now, and the sun was shining. "Gosain, hand me your chain. We still have to finish this part of the exam. It is not far from here."  
  
The older ninja passed Neji his chains, and they both tied them around their waists and began the trek to the top. Shiren walked holding onto Neji, her left leg still able to support much of her weight, though every step was painful.  
  
"Why?" Neji asked her when Gosain was far enough ahead that h could not here.  
  
Shiren's eyes, even with his own, showed she knew exactly what he met. She said nothing for a long time, and Neji shut his mouth and kept walking.  
  
"I couldn't watch you die." Shiren said suddenly as they topped the last ridge. "That would be far worse than these stings. Don't you know that?"  
  
"Ah." Neji said slowly. "The same for you." He replied, and he meant it. Shiren, searching his empty eyes, seemed to see something.  
  
"I appreciate it." She said. "Neji."  
  
They reached the shrine. 


	20. Between Snows

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And I am terminally obsessive! I'm writing this thing while at home on spring break, what's wrong with me, I had to burn the story to CD and everything, and now I'm posting it to. Oh well, brain-consuming stories most be appeased. Anyway this chapter is something of an interlude before more important stuff happens. It's also not one of the best, but it should be okay. One thing to note, a lot of names get tossed around here, don't really worry about remembering them, it's just to provide a little anticipation for the main matches.  
  
I seem to have acquired more reviewers, thanks to you all, and see, I'm updating. Additional comments are welcomed!  
  
Some Notes: Yes, I will be revealing somewhat of the history of the dragon ninja, well at least Xi and his immediate master, but that's quite some distance in the future. Gentle Fist spelling, yeah, that's perhaps the case, I swear I've seen it spelled with a 'y' at least once. It's one of the many words in Naruto that's been spelled differently by different translations. That bit about Wusashu is actually really nice, I recognized once I read the comment that if I had included something about it being burned away to blackened stone it would probably have increased the power of the moment, so thanks for noticing.  
  
Between Snows  
  
The shrine atop Mt. Kemigari was a small structure, a single pavilion sunk into the hillside, with a pedestal in front. The doors were shut and locked behind that pedestal, and made of stout stone. They were sealed with the symbol of the hidden village of stone.  
  
Approaching the shrine, Neji looked around at it. Hmm...how do we get in? There were no scrolls to open as in Konoha, only crystal pendants they carried.  
  
He turned to Gosain.  
  
The other ninja was exhausted, dragging his chains along behind him in the snow. He seemed to have to gather strength before speaking. "On the sides of the pedestal, there should be a place for each pendant. Give me the other two."  
  
Neji removed his and the pendant Shiren was wearing and tossed them to Gosain. The other ninja put the small pendants into each of four slots on the stone pedestal, one facing each direction of the compass, north, south, east, and west.  
  
The pedestal rumbled and shook, and slowly the doors opened, revealing a lighted space beyond. Behind those doors stood one of the Chuunin examiners that had served in the first exam, a drab Stone ninja. Such a pleasant greeting. Neji decided, recalling that it had been the academy instructors who greeted them at the end of the exam in Konoha. Still, I suppose it doesn't matter.  
  
"A fourth team huh?" The Chuunin looked surprised. Then he examined them more closely. "Team Fifty-eight?" His jaw almost dropped and Neji could see a hastily quelled reflex to grab a weapon.  
  
A few moments passed. "Well, come in out of the cold already, there's no reason to stand around with the door open."  
  
Neji walked forward, supporting Shiren, who nevertheless let go of him and limped across the doorway by herself. Gosain followed. Once through Shiren extended her arm again and Neji went back to holding her upright. "Thanks for letting me do that." She whispered to him.  
  
Neji didn't reply.  
  
The Chuunin in front of them swung the heavy stone doors shut, leaving them in a torchlit room. It was warm inside, this place was heated, and it felt unbelievably good to Neji to be truly warm for the first time since leaving the examination hall. "Follow me." The examiner said. "I'll explain the situation on the way down. It's a rather long elevator ride."  
  
The walked a short ways through the passage, coming to a small and crude elevator that plunged down into the heart of Mt. Kemigari. Before they got on, the examiner turned back to them. "By reaching this point you all have passed the Second stage of this Chuunin exam. You have proved your willingness to undertake an extraordinary difficult mission that was certain to cause hardship and suffering for your team, while still abiding by the rules as you were ordered by your superiors." Hardly, Neji thought, hearing this. That's what you'd like us to believe, but you examiners allowed all seven teams from Waterfall to try and kill us and did nothing. The examiner continued. "By doing this you have proven your ability to understand the self-sacrifice and dedication required by ninja, and the willingness to undertake the same hardships as your teammates and support them even when they are a disadvantage, not leaving anyone behind. This indicates you are ready to take the final test to determine your worth as squad leaders."  
  
"Ah." Neji muttered. "Is that all?"  
  
"Yes." The examiner replied stonily. "Let's go."  
  
The three genin stepped into the elevator and promptly collapsed to the floor when it started moving, resting their tired muscles and bones. On the long ride down the examiner did not speak to them anymore, and indeed he tried to avoid looking at them. Neji spent the time trying to scrape blood off his face and clothing, trying to remove the hideous layer of red that had stained him everywhere. Gosain slowly and meticulously rewrapped his chains around his body, and Shiren dressed her wounds and sat trying to minimize the pain she was in. Looking at her now Neji decided that Shiren's condition was not that bad, mostly she was just exhausted as they were, the cuts in her side were deep, but clean, and the injury to her foot not serious. She will recover quickly with rest. She must.  
  
By the time they reached the bottom they felt slightly refreshed, but still weak. The chuunin walked them down a long, long hallway, though he did pause to stop occasionally, and even provided food at one point. That went a long way to restoring the ninja's ability to keep going. Eventually, and it would have been late afternoon by this point, as Neji reckoned the time had passed, they emerged into a wide hall. An open and well lit building with the symbol for Stone painted large against the far wall, and a statue forming a hand seal in front of it. Much like that room in Konoha where they held the preliminary matches, Neji recalled. I hope there are no such matches this time. We are not prepared. Though, we should have over three days left to recover even if there are.  
  
In the front of the room stood a line stood many ninja. The examiners were in front, including Chi Kiri and the nameless examiner of the second exam. Behind them were several jounin, four ninja. One of them was Draci Xi. Neji looked at the other dragon ninja the moment he walked into the room, and Xi met his eyes from far off. There was a cold darkness in Xi's eyes, and Neji looked away quickly, but he understood the warning his fellow dragon ninja had conveyed. He also saw that Xi wore many bandages on his right leg, above the knee. Xi does not normally wear bandages. He must have been wounded. What happened? Who could wound him? The other jounin were from different countries, and Neji did not know them, but their forehead protectors identified them, Stone, Grass, and Lightning. They matched the three teams of genin that stood in lines in the hall.  
  
So, it is the two teams noted by Gosai and Shiren. Neji saw. The lightning ninja Yilosi Nemari and his team, two tall genins, older, like Gosain. Those strange grass ninja are here are well, there seem to be even more thorns on them than before. Strange. The third team was a group of stone ninja; Neji had not noted anything particularly interesting about them. They seemed to be quite strong now though, looking at them. Of all the teams the three stone ninja appeared the least damaged.  
  
Finally in the middle of the hall, flanked by a number of stone ninja, stood an older man in the robes of a Kage. This was Tsuchikage, leader of the hidden village of Stone and the eldest Kage now living with the death of the third. He had a dark face and cutting eyes, his expression seemed perpetually angry. Neji knew nothing about him.  
  
Once Neji's team had walked up and taken their place in line, Tsuchikage motioned to the second examiner. The man stepped forward and immediately began speaking. "You have all passed the Second Stage of the Chuuin exam. Word has been sent that no other teams currently remain in Secure Area Twelve, so it shall be these four teams. As none of you are rookies we can dispense with the elegant speeches and proceed to the point. The third exam will begin in one month. Special Jounin Acade," He indicated a ninja to his left. "Has been appointed as the referee for the third exam. Tsuchikage-sama will explain the rest to you."  
  
Tsuchikage stood still for a moment after the second examiner completed his speech, as if letting time catch back up to the man's quick words. Then he began. "You will fight in a tournament from this point forward. In a moment Acade will explain the rules to you, but they are quiet simple. This is your chance to show the strength of your respective nations to the feudal lords and shinobi leaders who will be in attendance. You will prove yourself as chuunins by proving your strength in life and death matches, and by proving the strength of the countries that taught you. Acade, explain the situation for them." Tsuchikage grumbled.  
  
The Special Jounin Acade was a short and dark skinned stone ninja. He wore the standard brown uniform of stone, now covered in winter gear. His hair was brown and curled back into a spiky clump above his head. The only remarkable facet was a series of linked iron rings he wore on the right hand. "All right, as the referee I will explain the rules to you. The main matches are held as life or death battles that continue from the moment they begin until one opponent cannot keep fighting or gives up. The determination of whether or not someone can keep fighting is entirely mine to make. Since we have four teams the matches will be held as a staggered tournament. The first round will be four matches, and in the second round those who were not in the first round will face the winners of the first round."  
  
"What?" One of the lightning ninja standing by Nemari, asked. "So if you're in the first round you get an extra match? How's that fair?"  
  
"The purpose of this exam is to demonstrate your abilities as chuunin, not to win the tournament. Those who particpate in the first round have an extra match, yes, but those who miss it have less opportunity, and they will have to face opponents who have already proven themselves. It evens out quite well. All matchups are random regardless." Acade paused, and then took out a small piece of paper. "We have determined what the first and second round matches will be already. When I read your name step forward and meet your opponent. The rest of you, pay attention, and recognize whom you will be facing in later rounds. This will be your only chance to try to grasp your opponents."  
  
Acade stepped in front of all four teams. "First match, Abaranki Kei versus Chi Yoro."  
  
Two ninja stepped forward, a girl from the grass team and a boy from the stone team. Both were thin ninja, but the grass ninja was tall while the stone ninja short. Neji recognized the Chi name, that boy, for it was a youthful ninja, perhaps his own age or a few months younger, is a relative of the first examiner. Niether ninja seemed particularly remarkable; they wore simple outfits with little adornment. The female grass ninja, however, carried several long branches one her back, they seemed to be woven with grass. There must be some strange technique she uses, Neji decided. The two ninja looked at eah other and said nothing, just trying to measure each other with their eyes.  
  
Acade continued. "The winner of this match to face Tonetero."  
  
"Heh." A deep and gritty voice remarked, as the strange grass ninja stepped forward. The man seemed to be covered in thorns, they stretched out of his uniform and through his hair. Are they stuck to his skin? Neji wondered, or are they growing out of it? The dark haired and eyes grass ninja had a cruel look. His eyes are almost like Gaara's Neji recalled.  
  
"Well Kei," Tonethero spoken in his scratchy voice. "If you win you get to face me. How nice."  
  
Kei went extraordinarily pale. The examiner motioned them all back into line. "Second Match, Monihii Waru versus Imidori Kana." This time the names called forward the female ninja from the Stone team and one of the two other boys from the lightning team. Neji noticed now that the two lightning, though they dressed very differently, were twins! Strange, very strange. That they should both be on the same team, why would the jounin allow that? Neji didn't like it. Well, they can't fight together this way. The tall lightning ninja faced his much shorter opponent, the stone ninja, Kana. Looking at them Neji decided it would be a close match. They are both more skilled than it would appear, he could tell from their careful stances.  
  
"The winner of this match to face Senirai Shiren."  
  
Shiren walked forward, limping painfully.  
  
"Well, quite the incentive you just gave me examiner." The lightning twin laughed. "I'll need to win the first match to have the chance to beat you, Shiren." He gave her a cruel and angry look.  
  
Shiren replied with a dark smile. "You can try, but I'd rather face your opponent. Beating you wouldn't even be a challenge."  
  
So, Shiren does know the lightning ninja. Neji considered. I wonder what she knows of them? He made a note to ask her, but quietly.  
  
"Get back in line." Acade told them pleasantly. "The third match, Yilosi Nemari versus Kabure Gosain."  
  
The words seemed to impact with the strike of a lightning bolt in the room. Behind Tsuchikage Xi's head turned to bore into the eyes of the Lightning jounin to his right, and likewise Gosain and Nemari stared at each other with death in their eyes. Each walked stiffly forward, Gosain gripping his pole and Nemari his spear. Though the two ninja held a similar state of exhaustion, they managed to gather a tremendous store of hate as they stared at each other. "So." Nemari spoke. "One month until I kill you." He said.  
  
"I'll beat you so bad you can never so much as stand up again without that spear to hold you bastard." Gosain spat back.  
  
"Enough." Acade said, moving between the two. "Settle this a month from now, or I'll disqualify you both. The winner, or perhaps it will be the survivor of this match faces Tsukabe Ota."  
  
In deep contrast to the violent reactions of the two Cloud ninja, the sturdy and stony stone ninja who stepped forward, a fully-grown man who appeared to be about sixteen, simply nodded at the others. This one is dangerous. Neji saw. Unlike the other stone ninja this man had the strength of the rock truly behind him, and he looked completely unfazed by whatever ordeal he had faced outside. So, that leaves only three, Neji saw as the ninja walked back into line. Which one will it be? He wondered.  
  
"Fourth match, Draci Neji versus Morihii Yon." Acade said clearly. "The winner of which, obviously, faces Doshiyre Masan."  
  
So, it is the other twin that I fight first. Neji thought as he stepped forward. He appears quite weak. It should not be difficult. He looked at the other one, the grass ninja. That one hides his abilities well, but I wonder what these grass ninja are capable of. Still, Neji could not convince himself that either of these two were a serious obstacle to him. He recalled that Xi had told him not to underestimate opponents, but how could these ones oppose him? I will wait though. There is a month that must pass.  
  
"Then that is all of the matches. The other logistics have been given to your jounin. They will guide you out of here and we will meet again in a month for the exam."  
  
As the examiner turned away and filed out behind Tsuchikage through a door behind the statues, Neji reached out to grab Shiren and hold her up again. "You're not yet ready to stand for so long."  
  
"I'll manage," She replied. "But thanks."  
  
Xi walked up to them, he himself walking slowly and deliberately, ignoring some pain. He looked over the three carefully. He said nothing though until the other three teams had left behind their jounin, a matter of some minutes. Then Xi finally spoke, and in tones low and serious. "I am impressed you all managed to survive." He told them. "Neji, what did the waterfall attempt?"  
  
"How do you know?" Neji asked Xi, wondering. He couldn't have been watching us, so how can he tell that the Waterfall attacked us.  
  
Xi tapped the bandages over his leg. "A far reaching conspiracy. Four jounin traveled here with the Waterfall genin, and I fought them all earlier today."  
  
"You fought four jounin?" Gosain said in shock.  
  
"Ah." Xi gave him a stern look. "It was not a pleasant fight, and I barely survived it, and even so I left a companion to die. Those jounin are dead now, but what happened to you?" He asked, somewhat impatient from the pain of his wounds, even if mostly healed.  
  
"The genin attacked us, all of them." Neji told Xi levelly. "They are dead now."  
  
"All of them." It was not a question.  
  
"No, one at least lives, perhaps two, but that is all." Neji recalled the ninja that Gosain had struck down. They might still be alive, if the Stone examiners had been quick.  
  
"Very well, one or two is not a concern." Some of the sternness and focus left Xi as he spoke; he seemed to return to a more normal perception. "With so many losses I do not think Waterfall will try anything more during this exam, indeed they will have to try and explain what has happened to Stone, given that they failed." XI paused. "I am quite impressed with you all, that you survived this ordeal, what was likely an s-rank mission, it speaks tremendously of all your abilities. You should handle the third portion of the exam easily. Yet, how did you defeat so many genin?" Xi asked, even though his eyes said he already knew the answer.  
  
All three ninja looked away, but Xi continued to stare at them, and Neji felt pressured and knew he must answer the older dragon ninja. "Wusashu." Was all that he had to say.  
  
"Ah." Xi replied tonelessly. "I suspected that." He stood back straight up. "It seems none of you are well, especially Shiren. Stone has been rather more accommodating in light of this conspiracy being defeated. I have another appointment with the medics, and Shiren and the rest of you should come. We will eat and recover and consider how to spend this month."  
  
The three ninja followed Xi out; the painful pace of the wounded all that they could manage. 


	21. Enduring Cold

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And, with vacation coming to and end I've managed to complete another chapter, yay (I'm not sure whether that's a good or bad thing). So, this is the final chapter before the main matches begin, though it might not seem like that initially. This chapter deals heavily with Neji and Shiren, for those not interested in that element, sorry. While not hugely important to the plot or anything, I'm mostly adding the romantic as a personal practice, since I've never really written a start to finish boy meets girl bit, and I figure a fanfic is the ideal point of experimentation.  
  
And reviewers thank you all, it's always nice to see comments. For responses: WerdnaChi: Even funnier (not really) is how its beginning to look like they might all survive this.  
  
Hattuteline: I'm actually going to gloss over the training bits pretty much totally so as to not get bogged down before going into an eleven-match tournament, of which I am in the process of writing them all. Still, I promise new techniques from Gosain and Shiren will show up, and some new stuff from Neji.  
  
X2Darklord: I know I get readers who don't review mentally, but its just not the same feeling, and it always helps to get comments on what's working right and what's not. About dragons, well, they are one of my fantasy interests (along with undead, constructs, and ninja), and I'd never done anything with oriental type dragons before writing this story. In reality though, this story began with Draci Xi and the idea for the rend technique, and the dragon element got attached to it pretty closely thereafter.  
  
Enduring Cold  
  
"I was told, after I failed the chuunin exam the first time, that the month between the second and third stages of the exam is a critical component." Gosain spoke idly, talking only half to Neji, and mostly to the bleak sky outside their small window. "That aside from simply letting feudal lords arrive and the wounded ninja recover, this period is when those genin who have what it takes to become leaders step forward and learn the skills they will need to perform as those leaders. They said that the real chuunin would change their level and their perceptions during that month, would advance as ninja in a fundamental way. Those ninja who accomplish this become chuunin, those who don't fail." Gosain sighed. "I don't really believe that. One month of training and preparation, one month to make yourself as strong as you can possibly become, it's significant certainly, but ninja fail once and come back again to succeed, sometimes they even fail multiple times. How much does one month truly matter against the weight of experience?"  
  
"Why are you asking me this?" Neji replied. He and Gosain were the only ones present, this the first day of that notable month. Xi was somewhere, supposedly in the hospital, as was Shiren. Neji did not particularly wish to talk with Gosain. He is a good companion, but I have nothing to say to him.  
  
"Well," Gosain started. "I was wondering what you were going to do with the month you have. I expect to start training early tomorrow. There's quite a bit I need to do to be ready for Nemari."  
  
"I am uncertain what I will do." Neji replied. "I expect I will work with Xi." Though he did not really wish to ask, Neji knew that Gosain wanted him to; he could read it in the man's face. "What is between you and Nemari?"  
  
The older ninja shook his head softly, looking back out the window. "I know Xi told you about my past." Gosain said quietly. "About how many of my teammates have died or been crippled. I hate to think on those deaths, on the people I've had to put behind me, friends and enemies both. Still, I believe that as a ninja that is my fate, the road I've been given to tread. Nemari though, he is awash in far more blood than I am, though he is younger by over a year. The worst part, the part I hate about him, is that he could have prevented so much of it. Nemari enjoys hurting people, he doesn't just do cruel things for some purpose or kill people because he must, he likes it, and he's good at it." Gosain's voice hardened. "I won't accept that. We ninja, we are soaked in blood by our very being, but to swim in it, I'll break him for that."  
  
That is not the whole of this, Neji could see that much. There is something deeper than this, he hates the man already, and the reasons are good, but there is a raw wound, and I can see the memory, but I do not know what it is. Still, there is no reason to ask. This business is Gosain's. "So you will break him then." He said calmly.  
  
"Yes." The older ninja instilled a great deal of promise in the word. "It's not enough just to beat him, I will make it so he can never be a ninja again."  
  
There was enough vehemence in Gosain's voice that Neji felt he should speak as the leader of the team for a moment. "Gosain, don't die, and don't forget the purpose of this exam."  
  
"Don't think I will Neji." Gosain chuckled harshly. "And I won't die, not against him. I won't kill him either, he doesn't deserve that." The older ninja paused. "Tomorrow I'll be getting up very early. I don't expect to see much of any of you, but don't worry about me. Nemari won't try anything before the exam, it would ruin his fun. Still, since I doubt I'll see you much before the matches, I have one thing to say."  
  
"And that is?" Neji asked levelly.  
  
"It's been nice to work with people who held together as well as you did. I don't have any more dead teammates to bury this time." Gosain answered, and the older ninja let a smile creep over his features, a very unusual thing, for he never smiled. "Oh, and make sure you go see Shiren before she gets out of the hospital. I've already said my piece to her, so you're the one that remains."  
  
"Yes. Me, and Xi." Neji replied.  
  
Their conversation ended there, and Gosain went outside to scrape his chains with sand, trying to work out blood, ice, and rock shards that had gotten buried in them upon the mountainside. Neji watched Gosain go, wondering about the older ninja. A steady man. He decided at length. I suppose he would be a good chuunin. It was an answer Neji felt confident in, an answer to a question he could not yet answer for himself.  
  
Little remained for Neji to do then, except to act on what Gosain had said. I have to go and speak to Shiren. He knew that, had known it, and yet he had not spoken to her since the three of them left her in the hospital the day before. Now, well into the afternoon of the day after, Neji still had not gone there. I must speak to Shiren, to discuss what will happen after this exam. We have to make some sort of decision. That far Neji had managed to reason, but little further. It was not like him, to not make up his mind. He was usually extremely decisive, but Shiren seemed to muddy the waters. He was closer to her than anyone else now, perhaps more than he had ever been to anyone, even though he had only known her a short time. In the first exam he had been forced to place his trust in Shiren, and she had proved that she was worthy of it, Neji had never really had such concrete proof he could trust someone before. Indeed, he had lived for over nine years since his father's death as if everyone was his enemy, from Hiashi, to Guy, to Rock Lee, and even to Naruto. Shiren was his first new friend since his views had changed, perhaps his first real friend ever. It was not difficult for Neji to tell that the situation was similar for Shiren as well. She has been isolated for most of her life as well, Xi had explained that to him, and though Neji did not know the reasons it was easy enough to read.  
  
The trouble was that beyond being simply his friend and teammate, something Neji thought he could deal with, after all, he dealt with Gosain, Shiren was an attractive young girl the same age as he was. I tried not to notice that, not to let it influence anything, Neji reminded himself. That had worked for a long time, but the second exam had broken that wall down. Crushed together in tight spaces and then carrying her along for hours it was impossible to not acknowledge that she was a woman, and one he did indeed find attractive. What am I to do about that? Neji did not have an answer with himself.  
  
It had forced him to reexamine his motives regarding Shiren, that realization. How does this affect us? I am attracted to her, but I cannot tell her feelings, though she has not expressed anything to the contrary. Though that was hardly comforting in this case. Unlike Tenten, whom Neji had read easily and realized that she idolized him greatly, he could not easily read Shiren. Her deep midnight eyes hide things from his vision.  
  
Yesterday Neji had resolved to put off considerations between him and Shiren until the exam was over, but he recognized now that it would be too late if he did that. After the exam she will leave, and I will likely not even speak to her. If we are to determine our fates it must be now, but she will leave regardless. Neji had told himself that was the case, but he knew it wasn't the truth. Xi had told him Shiren had the potential to be a dragon ninja, knowing that, she would stay with him if Xi took her on. Does she want that? Neji wondered, coming to an impasse. I suppose I will have to ask. That was what he dreaded.  
  
Regardless, Neji knew he duty. He would go see Shiren, a task he both welcomed, and was terrified by.  
  
Shiren was lodged in a small hospital room in Stone's ninja hospital, a stout building near the center of town, and one obviously designed for defense. Most of the buildings of Stone were, rings within rings that could be fallen back to if the outer walls were breached, and this building was part of the inner most defensive line, along with the Tsuchikage's office, armory, and other key structures. It made for a depressing atmosphere.  
  
Neji walked the short walk down to Shiren's room under the watchful eyes of a Stone medical ninja, who refused to let him wander around. The hospital contained many ninja; many of the genin who had taken part in the second exam were here, being treated for frostbite or hypothermia from their exposure to the mountains cold. Shiren, whose injuries were debilitating but required little more than rest to overcome, was not a priority here.  
  
At the door Neji found himself facing Xi, who seemed to be standing guard. The older dragon ninja rested easily against the wall, in spite of the far more serious injury to his leg. That he has recovered so much this quickly, Neji marveled. He should not be standing at all.  
  
"Neji." Xi spoke. "I expected you'd be here earlier. No matter. Take your time speaking to Shiren, and then meet me back at our rooms. We have a lot of work to do this month, and I intend to get started." The dragon ninja ordered.  
  
"Ah." Neji nodded. He had expected this. He had seventeen dragon jutsus left to learn, and he expected Xi would attempt to teach him several during this month of training.  
  
Xi walked away, hiding the slightest of limps beneath his definite movements.  
  
Neji was left staring at the door, the medic having followed Xi out.  
  
He took a deep breath, and then pushed the door open.  
  
Shiren sat propped up on her hospital bed, a magazine on her lap as Neji came in. She smiled softly at him when he entered, and motioned him to a chair beside the bed. "Afternoon, Neji."  
  
Shiren's smile was rather disarming, coming from someone who Neji had visualized as injured and in serious pain. Perhaps I was overly concerned. He thought, encouraged. "To you as well." He said.  
  
"Gosain, then Xi, and now you stop by." Shiren said pleasantly as Neji took the seat next to her bed. "I hope your visit will be more pleasant than theirs."  
  
"Did something occur?" Neji asked, more serious.  
  
"Oh no." Shiren smiled. "Just that Gosain's really not good around wounded people, and Xi is well, Xi. Neither of them are very cheering when you're stuck inside for several days."  
  
"How soon will you be about?" Neji asked her, hoping it was not long.  
  
"The medics say I need to stay off my feet for another two days." Shiren replied, a bit of annoyance creeping into her voice. "I know they're right but it's frustrating, I have a lot of work to do for this exam."  
  
"I suspect you will do fine." Neji said honestly. "You are more than suitably skilled."  
  
"Coming from you Neji that's very encouraging." Shiren laughed softly. "But I can't sit in here for a month. It won't be easy for me to become a chuunin you know, I'm going to have to do something spectacular or I'll just be ignored like always. Raikage's not supposed to make me a chuunin at all."  
  
"Not supposed to?" Neji spoke before remembering the full implications of Shiren's outcast past.  
  
"Political pressure." Was all she said in response, turning away for a moment. "Don't worry about it, we all have our handicaps. Of course, I do wonder what happens even if they make me a chuunin. No one's going to let me lead a team." Shiren's voice grew truly sad, something Neji not often seen from her. "Maybe they'd put me with Gosain, if he makes chuunin. That would be okay I guess, he's decent, solid." She paused. "But it's not what I want, and there's nothing in it. I couldn't go anywhere from there."  
  
Shiren fell silent then, and Neji did not say anything immediately. He was unsure of what to say. He understood to some extent, he had known for a long time that no matter how strong he became he would never lead the Hyuuga. I worked so hard for so long simply to spit in their faces, to prove them all wrong, but it was wasted. Neji knew that all his struggles until facing Naruto and losing had been mostly spite and nothing more, he had not been contributing to the Leaf or anything else, had not escaped his destiny. Is that why I went with Xi? Because it was something else he offered, a chance to truly become important to everyone? Neji thought that might perhaps be part of it.  
  
"What do you want then?" Neji asked quietly, at length, with as much kindness as he could manage.  
  
"Heh." Shiren muttered. "Didn't Xi tell you?" She returned.  
  
"He did." Neji answered. "Yet I would rather you told me yourself.' He managed, paused, and then continued. "Since it affects me as well."  
  
Shiren looked at Neji for a long time, he deep midnight blue eyes probing the pupil-less white orbs that he possessed, so very different those two pairs of eyes, yet similar. Neji recalled the moment when Shiren had held up the kunai to her face yesterday, matching the blood on it to the blood on his face, had supported him in the face of the horrors of the dragon ninja. He had leaned on her support at that moment, and now he saw that it had been that support, that acknowledgement that had allowed him to take the step and summon Wusashu, saving all their lives. He waited for her words with a knot deep in his stomach.  
  
When Shiren finally spoke it was slowly and deliberately. "I want to be a dragon ninja." She said clearly. "I have wished that since I survived the chaos eight years ago, since I learned what Draci Xi's fate was then. That path is the one I know I must take, if I am to become the ninja I that I decided to be when my parents died. It is my only choice."  
  
Sensing that Shiren was not done speaking, even though she paused here, Neji only nodded.  
  
"You know, Neji.' Shiren said, her tone slightly less as but no less serious. "When I heard Xi had trained you as a dragon ninja I wanted to hate you. That he had agreed to do for a Leaf ninja, a Hyuuga, upon whom so much of the responsibility lies for everything that happened to Xi and to me, it seemed horribly unfair. I am ready, I am capable, I know it, but Xi didn't choose to train me, he chose to train you." Neji felt the words hard, knowing that Shiren was well justified in her thoughts, that Xi had indeed passed her over for him in some strange way, many had been harmed by that decision.  
  
"It was only chance that Xi found me." Neji answered, trying to reply to her concerns.  
  
"No!" Shiren snapped sternly. "It was not chance. Something was at work, I know, since I met you." She took a shallow breath, and plunged on. "You should be a dragon ninja Neji, it is who you are, you are incredible. On the hills yesterday you summoned a creature out of legend, and faced it without fear, even as I stood shaking and terrified by it. The dragon ninja will be carried forward by you, to a height they have not known in a century, I am sure, you'll surpass Xi easily, and soon I expect. Having seen that I understand why Xi chose you, why you should be the next dragon ninja." Shiren sighed. "I am proud of you for it." She shook her head and looked away from Neji.  
  
For a long moment Neji was stunned. He could say nothing. She admires me this much? It was beyond what he expected. I was always strong, and always hated for it, not admired. Why should Shiren look up to me? He looked at her then, and saw that she was on the verge of tears. It had taken tremendous strength for her to say that. He knew he had to speak, had to say something, this was the pivotal moment where he must act. If I am silent now, then this whole conversation will be a waste, a torrid goodbye long before she is gone.  
  
Neji's mind raced as he searched for the right words, he latched onto the first thing that came to him. "Why is that so troubling?" He asked Shiren.  
  
She turned back to him, confusion in her eyes. "What?"  
  
"What does it matter if Xi chooses to train me?" Neji continued, finally hitting the right pathway. "Why should there be only one dragon ninja? He could train you as well."  
  
Shiren blinked, and then again, staring at Neji. "He could." She said. "He could." She repeated. "Yes, but will he? I do not think that Xi wants to train another dragon ninja. Since the great ninja wars ended there has never been more than one master and a single pupil. The last time it was tried was under the first Raikage, and only one student survived all those who tried to kill them all."  
  
"Things change." Neji answered. "I am not a Cloud ninja, but Leaf, if that can happen, why should there not be more? At least, it should be put to Xi, if this is what you want."  
  
"It is." Shiren answered, smiling again, her face happier. Then she grew more serious. "I wonder, exactly, why did you ask this Neji? Do you want me to become a dragon ninja?"  
  
Perceptive. Neji noted once more. He struggled to formulate a reasonable reply.  
  
"More sentimental than I expected of you." Shiren interjected before he managed to speak up. "It seems that you actually would like that." She looked at him seriously. "You really should answer you know."  
  
"Ah." Neji mumbled. "I think..." He paused. "I think that we work well together, and I have few teammates or friends. It would be good to have someone around besides simply Xi."  
  
Shiren gave him a soft smile, and a frightfully knowing look. "That will do, and you're right, we do work well together. Of course, I suppose then someone needs to ask Xi."  
  
"I suppose." Neji answered, immediately finding himself quite dour. "I will have to do it." He acknowledged. "Since he already knows your feelings."  
  
"Yes, that's true." Shiren looked far away for a moment, and turned to the window. "Neji." She began. "I'm sure I won't see you much for the next month, since we all have training to do, and by ourselves. So, tell me whatever Xi decides when the exam's over, it won't matter before then anyway, and I don't want to think about it until then. All right?"  
  
"Ah." Neji replied. "That makes sense."  
  
"Good." Shiren said sternly, then forcibly brightened. "Now, I'm glad you came by, really." She smiled one last time, and Neji returned it as best he was able. "I suspect Xi's waiting for you, and it's not good to keep him waiting too long. So, you should get going."  
  
Neji stood up at that, recognizing the conversation was at its end, and he was not sure whether anything had truly been clarified. "Get better soon then." He said stonily, and turned to go.  
  
Shiren watched silently as he left.  
  
On the walk back to their rooms Neji made a single, simple decision. I will ask Xi right now, there is no sense in waiting, and I will not stop thinking about this until I do.  
So, when Neji opened the door and entered their small suite of rooms, Xi, seated at the small table, gave him a strange look. "What is it?" The dragon ninja commanded.  
  
"I have something to ask you." Neji answered.  
  
Xi raised an eyebrow. "About what? The next month perhaps?" He looked at him strangely. "It's very simple, I am going to instruct you in as many of the remaining seventeen dragon jutsus as possible, so that you have at least knowledge of them all, even if you don't master them."  
  
"No, not that." Neji answered. "That is about what I expected."  
  
"Then its Shiren isn't it." Xi said sternly. "What about her?" The dragon ninja's face was ice cold.  
  
"She wants to be trained as a dragon ninja." Neji said crisply. "I think she should be."  
  
"You think?" Xi was taken aback. "You think she should be trained to be a dragon ninja? Since when does that matter at all?" Xi's voice grew angry.  
  
"You made me a dragon ninja." Neji answered. "I should have some say in this."  
"Really?" Xi barked. "I don't see why you should, Neji. Since I will be the one training her, unless you consider yourself capable. I made the decision to train you, I do not see why I should take Shiren and make her into a dragon ninja as well."  
  
"You told me the times needed dragon ninja."  
  
"I did." Xi replied. "And I was right." His tone did not change. "But I have discovered that I'm not a teacher. You are a genius, you get by, I can explain things to you and that is enough. I'm not a sensei; I can't undertake to teach Shiren. And so that you know, I will not make mistakes in teaching a dragon ninja; I will not unleash some half-trained killer upon this world. I simply will not do that."  
  
"You are underestimating Shiren." Neji said with absolute certainty.  
  
"Since when did you become such a judge of capability?" Xi snapped, the harsh personal remark very unusual for him, revealing his agitation. "I've seen countless genin, and known Shiren for years, how do you know she's ready to become a dragon ninja?"  
  
"She is my teammate." Was the only answer.  
  
"Dammit!" Xi spat. "I wonder about this Neji. I wonder about your motives, your judgment, and many other things. Don't think that I owe you this." His voice rose. "The last time I checked I owed no debts to you, student!"  
  
Neji had difficultly standing up to Xi. The other ninja was infinitely more experienced than he was, and more powerful. He had been a ninja for a long time, seen things that Neji could not. He does not have my eyes, Neji knew, but how much can I trust them, that cannot pierce Shiren. Maybe he is right. No sooner had that thought passed than the counter came. Maybe he is wrong. Xi does not like working with others. He spent eight years alone. Perhaps he simply does not want another with him. "At least give Shiren a chance." Neji managed against Xi's rage.  
  
"A chance?" Xi said, more calmly. "Exactly what do you have in mind?"  
  
Neji had not had anything in mind when he said those words, but the answer was obvious, both to him and to Xi. "This exam, allow her to demonstrate her abilities."  
  
"Demonstrate her abilities?" The older ninja appeared to consider. After a long moment of staring at the ceiling he decided. "Fine. I will allow this, since you feel so strongly, and perhaps you do know something. At the very least you are right that there is a need for dragon ninja, and perhaps for a dragon ninja from lightning most of all. These then are my conditions, Neji." Xi set down. "If Shiren can become a chuunin in this exam, and not in my estimation but in that of Raikage, who will most certainly be in attendance, then I will train her. However, during this month you will not mention this to her, and you will not give her any help during training. She labors under a considerable prejudice, so it will be very hard for her to become a chuunin. If she can do that, then I will accept that I underestimated her." Xi stopped. "Now, this conversation is over for the next month. We have too much work to do, so Shiren and Gosain are going to stop existing until those main matches as far as you are concerned. Do you understand?"  
  
Completely masking the joyous feeling Neji felt at Xi's words, Neji replied simply. "I understand." Shiren will succeed. He believed.  
  
"Good. We will begin with a jutsu called Dragon Fang." Xi said as he stood up from the table. 


	22. A Step Forward

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Now, the main matches begin! I'm sorry about the lag between the last update and this one, I was really busy for most of this week and haven't had a lot of time. Some things about these matches, since I'm going to do the entire eleven match tournament, with people facing opponents that actually completed previous rounds I'm had to do certain things. So several of the first couple matches will be kind of reduced in scope, like how several of the prelim fights in Naruto were.  
  
Thanks to all reviewers, and reply comments:  
  
Hattuteline: The 'white-eyed romance expert' indeed, somehow I found that line hilarious. The relationship will develop in fits and starts from here on probably, I'm not sure exactly what's going to happen wit it since it's not central to the plotline. Thanks for the notes about the Jyu characters; I'm certainly not a student of Japanese myself.  
  
Orlha: probably all 17 jutsu will not appear, but Xi will go through a bunch of them in future fights when the Akatsuki eventually show up on scene (so to speak).  
  
SilverDragonfly: I have tried to make Shiren into a strong character, which is something of a challenge because of Neji and Xi's level of ability, but I don't want to her to be like so many of the other girls in Naruto, hideously weak compared to their male teammates. Exactly how Xi met Shiren will indeed be coming up, when all of the past of lightning comes out.  
  
A Step Forward  
  
The heart of winter settles over the Hidden Village of Stone for a month, as ninja strain themselves against the cold and their own limitations for that one-day in the very depths of the chill when they shall be forced to prove themselves. The main matches are come then, as the month seems to fly by, and the lives of twelve ninja are poised before a break in the road, to take one path as chuunin, or remain as genin. Though, there are always dark tendrils and whispers that suggest a third path, that you could die here or be stopped forever, not able to be a ninja anymore. This is the test that comes in winter, the cruel day of the main matches.  
  
Twelve ninja are gathered at the exam stadium, to great crowds, stone ninja, lightning ninja come to see two teams compete, grass ninja to cheer their team, and many feudal lords and their entourages, come for betting and something to do in the middle of winter. The stadium is a cloistered place, built into the side of the mountain, grand and terrible, but also warm, channeling the heat of thousands of observers. An empty field cluttered with rock is in the center of the stadium, with only a few hardy mountain plants and grasses lying on the field, and the husks of last year's growth.  
  
Draci Xi watches from a point far back in the stands, seeing the twelve genin on the field, three of whom he has brought, his team, much rumored and disputed, the first team with genin from different villages to reach the main matches in years. Xi watches, he has heard the rumors, analyzed the competitors in the moments between stretches of training, he has his own worries and fears. I do not know how they will do; I will have to watch like anyone else. Xi looks down as the crowd takes in the gathered genin. At least no one is late, he smirks, recalling the situation in Konoha, and I doubt there will be any Naruto type surprises this time. Neji, I wonder what will happen with you. It has been a bad month.  
  
"What is wrong with you!" Xi remembers shouting the words balefully, almost threatening Neji. "Every day I have gone over a new jutsu, we've covered them all now, and many again, and you have not mastered any yet, and only progress towards the least usable ones! I know your skills are better than this! Where is your drive Neji?" His accusations had gone unanswered, though Xi could well guess. You are trying to flee from the dragon ninja Neji, trying to not embrace the killing soul within. It must be what happened on the mountain, twenty-one Waterfall ninja. Xi could imagine what had happened, the fury of a T'ien Lung in battle, the dragon lord's wrath raw and brutal. Neji had come back from the exam soaked in blood, and it had seemed to stain every part of him. You can't escape it Neji, Xi knew, this is the path you chose yourself, and there is no turning back now. Still, the older ninja had no answers, did not know how to help his student, how to guide him back. He was terribly worried. And I have forbidden him to kill in these matches, which does not help.  
  
He had given that command because he had to, to make the contest worthwhile. Neji could easily defeat any of these opponents, even the strongest, if he used his dragon jutsus and ripped them open. I have made it a test again, but it will not help him accept that he is a dragon ninja. Xi mulled quietly in the stands, standing away by himself, his frightful presence enough to scare most away from him. Of course, that did not count the ANBU that were cautiously observing.  
  
The matches were about to begin; Raikage had come up into the Kage's box with Tsuchikage at the top of the stadium, the mountain to their back. Heh, still wearing that sword strapped over your robes I see. Xi noted of Raikage, and indeed the lightning leader wore an ANBU sword strapped in open harness above his robes, a very strange action. Xi recognized the man easily, a ninja his own age. I'm glad you came, Raikage-sama. Xi decided. You're a better judge of this than I.  
  
"So, the Raikage did come, as was rumored." A voice said from Xi's left. "And the head ninja from grass is also here, so all have their leaders present except Draci Neji."  
Xi turned and saw the ninja standing next to him, a stone ninja in their chuunin garb. He was nondescript, perhaps sixteen or seventeen years old. Xi noted only two things about him. His eyes do not blink, they are steady, like lenses, and he wears a straight sword at his side. That was unusual; few ninja wore their swords that way, as samurai do, preferring back harnesses. I wonder who this boy is, who has the courage to speak with me. "You are?" Xi asked, not looking directly at him.  
  
In response the youth slid his sword a few inches out of its scabbard, revealing something very different from steel, a crystalline shine.  
  
The dragon ninja scowled. "I see. You're that one." Strange that I should run into this boy, he thought. He must have some reason to speak with me. "Do you have something to discuss?"  
  
"Not really," The stone ninja replied. "But I expect your comments to be far more interested than those of my countrymen who will talk with me. And really, do you wish to watch the exam alone?"  
  
"I'm accustomed to that," Xi answered, noting that the other ninja's eyes remained focused on the field. "So unless you make it worth me while..."  
  
"Heh." The stone ninja answered. "Tsukabe Ota's the one everyone from stone is talking about to win, but I expect there should be some interesting fights. Most of the first round's a waste, except for the third fight."  
  
"Indeed." Xi replied, waiting for the other ninja to continue.  
  
"Kabure Gosain and Yilosi Nemari, and only one will be walking off the battlefield one way or another. They are closely matched as well. It is impossible to predict a winner. I wonder whom Raikage favors?"  
  
"That one is a soldier." Xi says quietly. "He'll favor the winner, he doesn't have any choice."  
  
"I see." The stone ninja answered. "It seems they're about to begin the first match. What do you think?"  
  
"A grass ninja versus Chi Kiri's nephew." Xi muttered. "The grass team is very dangerous, I hope the stone boy doesn't die."  
  
"Ah." The stone ninja responded, which surprised Xi. He has better judgment than I thought to recognize that.  
  
The examiner, Special Jounin Acade, stood between the two genin in the center of the arena. Chi Yoro, a short stone ninja with a double-bladed kunai hanging from his hip, and Aburanki Kei, the strangely dressed grass ninja with woven branches on her back, the taller of the pair. She wore a grim expression, and looked down at Yoro. "Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked.  
  
Yoro nodded, resolved.  
  
"First Match: Aburanki Kei of Hidden Grass versus Chi Yoro of Hidden Stone." He raised his right hand high. "Begin!" The examiner leapt backward as his hand came down.  
  
Chi Yoro leapt backward, hands moving quickly through seals. "Earth Element: Mud Cone no jutsu!"  
  
He opened his mouth and spat a series of muddy globules far around the arena, encompassing a rough circle around Kei, who watched impassively.  
  
The ground shook where the globs landed, and large cones of mud rose up out of the ground, reaching the height of a person and forming rough cones. Yoro smirked. "Now I have you."  
  
Kei looked unimpressed. "You've covered the field in mud and proclaim victory?" She raised an eyebrow, but did not move.  
  
"She's patient." The stone ninja next to Xi noted. The dragon ninja barely nodded.  
Yoro reached down to his double-bladed kunai, and then threw it with a spinning sidearm maneuver. It shrieked out spinning horizontally toward Kei in a parabolic motion.  
  
"Hmm, the Chi family's returning kunai throw, an interesting technique." The stone ninja commented.  
  
Kei dodged aside swiftly, but the motion brought her close to one of the mud cones.  
  
Yoro's hands flashed. "Earth Element: Exploding Shard no jutsu!"  
  
The cone suddenly hardened to rock and blew apart, sending spear like shards of solid mud everywhere. The view vanished for a moment, but before the flying stone obscured everything Xi saw Kei reach back and pull out her woven branches.  
  
The dust cleared and Yoro peered over to wear Kei had been standing.  
  
A wall of grass and sticks stood there with hundreds of rock shards sticking to it. In seconds the wall seemed to fold away, to form back into the woven braches Kei held. "So that's it?" The grass ninja commented. She took the strange constructions and ran them along the ground, picking up the scrubby grass that grew there. Then she stuck both down into the dirt, forming her own hand seals. "Grass element: Woven Leaf Spear!"  
Spears of green peeled off from the branches.  
  
Yoro grabbed his returning kunai out of the air. He was obviously confused, and could not see a way to penetrate the wall of branches Kei had created before. He threw his kunai again and rushed forward.  
  
"Wrong strategy." Kei muttered. She leapt up, pulling her green spears along with her. She blocked the oncoming kunai first, those grassy weapons proving as hard as wood, and then threw both.  
  
The spears flight was not smooth or fast, and Yoro looked to simply stand between them and allow them to land next to him.  
  
Kei made a single seal.  
  
The grassy branches burst apart in a storm of razor sharp grass leaves, all pointed at Yoro like a thousand sharp needles. He barely had time to bring his arms up to guard before the storm whipped him aside.  
  
Yoro screamed as the grass needles impacted him, ripping slashes across his flesh as they slashed by, leaving him a mass of cuts. He managed to get up quickly and dodge aside from Kei's charge, but was left standing there with blood leaking out everywhere on his body as the uninjured grass ninja stared at him.  
  
"Not enough?" Kei muttered. "Or will you give up now?"  
  
Chi gritted his teeth and pulled several shuriken. He raised them to throw. "I'm not finished yet."  
  
Kei responded with a dark look, and ran here branches along the ground again. Shuriken flew, but Kei pulled off wooden shuriken and knocked them aside, even as she was already circling.  
  
The wood impacted metal with a clang, and Yoro rolled to hurl more shuriken at Kei as she dashed behind one of his cones.  
  
These shuriken flew straight and clear, to take the grass ninja in the torso. The stone ninja's eyes brightened for a second.  
  
Then his hopes were dashed as Kei's form collapsed into a pile of grass and leaves around one of her woven branches. The other came down like a great club over his head. "Ha!" Kei shouted as the branch impacted with a sickening thud. Chi Yoro dropped to the ground like a stone.  
  
Slowly the grass ninja walked over to her other branch and placed it back in her back harness.  
  
Acade walked over to the stone genin's prone form. When he failed to rise after a moment he raised his hand. "Winner: Aburanki Kei!"  
  
The crowd roared.  
  
"Interesting jutsu style she uses." The stone ninja next to Xi muttered. "Plant manipulation, a tricky technique, and she's pretty good with it. Those branches work as a catalyst for all her jutsus, not a bad focus method."  
  
"She still has to rely on a catalyst, her jutsus are not particularly strong." Xi replied. "More important was that she waited to evaluate her opponent and changed strategies repeatedly to keep him confused. It will be interesting to see how she fares against her teammate."  
  
"Indeed." The stone ninja replied darkly. "No one really knows anything about this Tonetero, but he is apparently very dangerous."  
  
"He is." Xi said. "That bloodline is very dangerous indeed."  
  
There was some shuffling then, as Kei went back to the stands and the next two opponents stepped forward.  
  
Neji, standing in the waiting room next to Gosain and Shiren looked at the grass ninja with new respect when she returned. I though all grass ninja were weak, but this one is reasonably skilled, and intelligent. Still, I won't have to face her until the very last match, and I doubt she'll get that far. He recalled the eyes of the other grass ninja. No, she will not get that far. Both Shiren and Gosain were paying attention to the next match, since it pitted a lightning ninja against the girl from stone. The winner will face Shiren, Neji knew, and so he determined to watch carefully. Which one would you rather face Shiren? Neji wondered, looking at her next to him.  
  
She caught his gaze. "Don't worry about it. I'm ready for whomever I face." She said softly.  
  
"I know that." Neji said steadily. "But it is aggravating to have to watch matches of those I know you will beat."  
  
Shiren laughed softly at that, and Gosain joined in. From the other side of the room, Nemari shot them a lethal glare.  
  
"We will now begin the second match." Examiner Acade spoke to the crowd. "Monihii Waru of Hidden Cloud versus Imidori Kana of Hidden Stone." He raised his had as the two ninja stood facing each other. They both wore simple uniforms in imitation of a chuunin's garb. The lightning ninja towered over his opponent, but there was an obvious strength to the stone girl. Neither carried apparent weapons.  
  
"Begin!" Acade's hand slashed downward.  
  
The examiner leapt out from between the two genin, who paused to stare at each other silently. Neither moved or even twitched, but stood steady, facing each other, hands at their sides. They were very serious. The moment stretched out greatly, and the crowd grew impatient.  
  
"Hmm..." The ninja standing next to Xi muttered.  
  
Xi said nothing. It will be...now!  
  
Kana broke left, ripping shuriken loose from her pouch and throwing them as she moved.  
  
Waru rolled right and dodged them, coming up with a kunai ready as Kana attacked. They met, and metal struck metal in a series of quick blows and counterblows, the clear ringing sounds carrying throughout the arena. As they fought they moved, dashing forward and back left and right, directionless, each seeking an advantage in this taijutsu struggle. Neither found one.  
  
The lightning ninja's kunai came across, a blow that forced Kana back, but instead of following through he jumped back on his own, throwing the weapon forward as a screen. Hands moved and formed seals, a quick and simple pattern, one much practiced. "Lightning Element: Shock blast no jutsu!"  
  
The seals completed a straight and brutal blast of lightning burst from Waru's mouth, to streak toward his stone ninja foe. She rolled away, but the attack was followed by several shuriken. Kana managed to block all but one with her kunai. That shuriken bit deep into her left leg, but the wound was minor, and she was quick to reply.  
  
"Earth Element: Mud Blast no jutsu!" A huge and surging blast of sodden earth filled the air in front of Waru, threatening to trap him and make him easy to finish.  
  
The cloud ninja dodged by leaping upwards, the only option left to him, and exposed himself to the shuriken attack. His counter was much the same as Kana's, but he was struck twice, once in the chest and once on the right arm.  
  
Waru landed far from Kana, and they stood facing each other.  
  
"Similar." The Stone ninja told Xi, "Genin with balanced skills in all areas, no specialization, no distinctive skills."  
  
"The winner will be the one with the most effective jutsu." Xi said quietly. "It will be the next attack."  
  
"Are you sure?" The man asked.  
  
"Perfectly." Xi told him. "The lighting twin will win I expect."  
  
The other turned back to watching the match.  
  
Kana and Waru faced each other, watching carefully. Then they both broke toward the other, going directly forward. No weapons were drawn.  
  
They closed rapidly, sixty feet, fifty feet, thirty feet, then fifteen feet. Then both stopped suddenly. Hands flashed trough the motions of seals, and chakra was gathered. "Earth Element: Spike Raiser no Jutsu!" "Lightning Element: Ball Lightning no jutsu!"  
  
A row of stone spikes erupted from the ground in front of Kana, growing progressively taller as they surged toward Waru, seeking to impale him upon their sharp edges, rocky razors to rise up and kill. In response came three fluorescent balls of crackling energy. Freely moving globes that pulsed with a viscous presence. Waru's right hand formed into a seal as his face took on a cruel smile.  
  
A ball of lightning slammed into the rising cone, and stopped it. Energy cackled and burned as rock creaked, moaned and protested, but it did not advance.  
  
Kana's eyes went wide as the two remaining globes of electrical power streaked towards her.  
  
The Stone ninja jumped back, dodging around one orb and spinning under the other, but she got too close.  
  
"Heh." Waru smirked, and his hand curled into a second seal.  
  
The blasts of lightning exploded, all around Kana, striking her body shocking and burning, obscuring the senses. She collapsed to the ground, but managed to push herself to her knees quickly.  
  
Waru slammed his fist into the back of her skull. The Stone ninja pitched forward and collapsed.  
  
Examiner Acade walked over slowly. He put his hand to Kana's head, then stood up again. "Winner: Monihii Waru!"  
  
So it is done. Xi thought, and he gripped the rail in front of him tightly. Now comes the one important event of the first round. Two lightning ninja will fight each other.  
  
"So, it's your genin next." The ninja next to Xi spoke again. "A lot has been said about this fight. Who do you think will win?" He asked levelly.  
  
"No one will win." Xi said, turning to his companion straight in the eyes. "But Gosain will be the one who survives." 


	23. Two Storms

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And now for Gosain's fight, which is the whole chapter. Hopefully people will enjoy it.  
  
Thanks to all reviewers, and encouragements for more!  
  
Two Storms  
  
Neji looked over at Gosain almost the moment Kana fell. His match is next. I wonder. The last time his teammates had fought in an exam both had failed, though Neji had expected a victory from each of them. I underestimated the Sand then, but what is this situation?  
  
"Good luck, Gosain." Shiren whispered to the older ninja. He nodded in response, eyes set terribly grim, and his knuckles stretched taught gripping his pole.  
  
"Remember the overall goal." Neji said quietly, his voice still stern. "This is still an exam."  
  
"I know." Gosain turned to them both. "Thanks. When I get back up here it will be your turn."  
  
He did not march down the steps to the field as the participants in the first two matches had, but vaulted over the wall to land in front of the examiner. Yilosi Nemari, long spear in hand, followed.  
  
They faced each other with the examiner in between, Acade looking rather uncomfortable to be between the two ninja.  
  
Nemari stuck the butt end of his spear into the churned earth, a remnant of the previous fights. "Any last words?" He hissed at Gosain.  
  
Gosain's eyes narrowed, and anger rose within him, but he crushed it down between the iron will he had developed long ago. He pushed everything away but his sense of the enemy, blotting out the rest of the world as he had long ago learned to do, to keep going after everything else had been destroyed. He still knew everything he knew about Nemari, all the bits and pieces that he hated about this ninja, a young man almost exactly the same age, but they were distant. The prominent family that protected him as a child, the incidents of bullying, the specialized teachers, the best equipment, the excuses he was allowed, the malice he showed, the many others he had killed, Gosain pushed all of that away. He even managed to ignore the event three years ago, when Nemari had killed his teammate in the second stage of the chuunin exam, a girl who had survived everything else and who had not considered Gosain cursed. It was all gone behind the older ninja's eyes, which focused all about Nemari, measuring the other ninja, ready to fight.  
  
I am cursed to survive when others fall. Gosain had long known this. But that means I will not lose to you today.  
  
Each ninja held his weapon with two hands, and the observers sensed the tense atmosphere. The crowd went silent. The barest flutter of winds through leafless boughs could be heard now.  
  
Special Jounin Acade dared a glance up to the high vista where the two Kages watched. He caught something in their gazes and raised his hand high.  
  
"Begin!"  
  
The examiner was suddenly gone, falling back all the way to the stadium wall. Gosain and Nemari exhaled as one, and then charged.  
  
Steel pole met spear with a viscous clang, and then the weapons and the ninja who wielded them spun, striking again and again, but each blow was always blocked as they grunted and spat, feet moving and eyes dark. Gosain's eyes with the cold fury of the arctic storm that freezes everything beneath an icy coat. Nemari, the tropical fury, feral and raw, ripping all apart.  
  
Then Nemari spun the haft of his spear above Gosain's guard and tapped in hard at his chest.  
  
Gosain flew backward, breath driven from his lungs and skidding to a stop some distance away. He was hardly hurt though; his chains had dissipated the force of the blow.  
  
"Stop fooling around Gosain!" Nemari barked. "Fight with your true weapons!"  
  
"Heh." Gosain's mouth twisted a tiny bit. "You've gotten better, but it won't be enough."  
  
Nemari set his spear to his right side, held in the solid stance of a pikeman. "I'll run you down then." His face contorted in fury.  
  
"First Stroke!" Nemari's feet moved with a frightful suddenness in a single motion that launched him skidding level on his charge, set to impale Gosain directly with terrible strength and speed. Wind hissed around the spearhead as he moved.  
  
Gosain reached around with his pole, striking the hooks buried beneath his false flak jacket. They attached with practiced precision, and he ripped the long chains free. "Stormfront Lash!"  
  
The whirling barrage of chains came forward, striking the spearhead again and again, crawling up the shaft, until Nemari broke backwards, spinning his spear to ward off additional strikes.  
  
"Good." He grinned. "You're serious now Gosain. Time to really start fighting."  
Nemari struck his spear into the ground, wrapping his hands round it. "Lightning Element: Shocking Spears no jutsu!"  
  
Energy surged up from the ground to envelop the spear, and spread out around Nemari's hands, which he drew back from the spear itself. The electrical power followed, forming into four different spear shapes positioned around the physical spears. Four spears made of lightning.  
  
Laughing, Nemari jumped high into the air, arching above Gosain. "Got you!" He shouted, and hurled his spears downward.  
  
Four fearful blasts of energy rushed forward faster than any thrown weapon to impale the ninja.  
  
Gosain's chains whirled around wide. "Hurricane blast!"  
  
The first chain stroke came across, sweeping the bolts of power down and into the ground to dissipate into nothing. Then came the other chain, the second threat of the hurricane, arching in on a long armed sweep to reach past Nemari's defenses.  
  
At the final instant Nemari blocked out with his spear tip and dropped down under the chain's sweep. His face was twisted in anger. "Well. It seems this won't end so quickly. Fine." He laid his spear in the pikeman's stance once again. "Lightning lance!"  
  
Electrical energy shivered down from Nemari's hands and into the weapon, creating a crackling spear of chakra that was over twenty feet in length, but moved with the physical weapon. The reaches were now even.  
  
If that hits, I will be shocked. Gosain recognized the threat from this, a simple but tremendously effective technique for Nemari's style. However, I have a counter.  
  
Gosain placed one hand on his pole and one hand on his chains and stood ready for Nemari's attack.  
  
The other ninja leapt up and forward to skewer him from the right side.  
  
"Cloudedge whip!" A single chain snaked out as Gosain let his pole fly forward and manipulated the whole length of the weapon from one end. A long viscous snake of metal with a wicked kunai at the tip and a solid rod in the center slashed in under Nemari and came upwards to drive him back.  
  
The initial moves were thus countered, but these two were not done. Chains ripped through the air as crackling lightning followed, and the two ninja spun and countered, shoving their weapons and chakra forward and back. They moved right, rolling, seeking an opening, any way to strike the other without being slashed apart in return.  
  
Strokes split the ground with wide gashes and holes, and the air sparked and ripped with the energy unleashed. Many could see nothing inside that torment of energy as it passed, but the eyes of Gosain and Nemari remained focused totally on the other, even as Neji watched in awe through the storm at his teammate's true strength.  
  
Many moves of taijutsu spattered against each other until at last there was a change.  
  
Nemari struck down with his lance from above, drawing Gosain's chains up in response.  
  
Yet the spear wielding ninja had let his blast of electrical power travel onward on its own, and now dashed in over the open ground, spear raised with viscous metal tip to skewer Gosain.  
  
"No where to dodge, no way to block!" Nemari screamed in triumph. "Die!"  
  
Gosain's left hand pulled down hard on his chains. "Self storm binding!" He shouted as the metal links wrapped around his own body in a protective shield even as Nemari's spear came in.  
  
The foot and a half of sharp metal head struck into a chain link and caught there, even as Gosain reached out his right hand to grasp the pole at the center of the chains, holding it next to the spear haft. Gosain's left hand grabbed the chain links down low, and then pulled.  
  
Nemari saw the trap and tried to pull back, but too late.  
  
Chains pulled taught and spearhead moved, cutting a thin runnel of blood along Gosain's flesh, but bringing the spearhead far to the side of the shaft, head solidly against that steel pole.  
  
It snapped in two with a horrendous crack, and Nemari's face fell apart in a single image of shock and horror.  
  
"Whirling Stormfront!" Chains ripped free of Gosain's body and blasted Nemari back with blow after blow.  
  
Nemari's body was struck repeatedly, but the other ninja's eyes simply gathered a viscously feral gleam. He grabbed the chains as they thumped into his flesh, taking great bruises, and then threw them back at Gosain, forcing a pause.  
  
A good distance separated the two now, as Gosain stood gasping for breath. Not much chakra left. He noted. But I broke his spear. He can't do anything now, so why do his eyes have that look? Inside, Gosain knew it was not over, indeed he expected Nemari would soon do something, but he took a single moment to pause, and give his opponent a last chance. "Give up now, Nemari. It's over."  
  
"You've gotten better, Gosain." Nemari spat out blood from behind a bruised face. "But it's not over at all. I may not get to skewer you, but at least you can burn." The look on his face was raw and beyond reason, an inhuman glare of predation.  
  
Nemari's hands flashed through seals, and his face contorted in suddenly agony as every portion of his body spasmed. Even as he spoke, lighting, not blue, but a hideous orange energy, caroused over his body. "Self-Scourging Stroke!" He growled. Voice lost of all reason.  
  
"That is a forbidden technique!" Came the strong and clear voice of Raikage, standing up in front of his chair, sword drawn.  
  
The examiner, Acade, looked about to intervene, hearing the Raikage's words, indeed, Raikage seemed ready to demand it.  
  
"Don't interfere." Gosain forced the words from between clenched teeth. "No matter what happens, this fight is mine." His eyes dared the examiner to advance.  
  
Acade didn't move.  
  
"Good Gosain, then you can die easily." Nemari took a step forward.  
  
"Go to hell you bastard!" Gosain shouted, leaping into the air, chains whirling behind him.  
  
Nemari held his hands up, slowly forming a seal. His face twisted into a mad grin of destructive glee.  
  
Chains whirled wide. "Chain Lightning energy!" Chakra blasted down the length of each chain, turning to electrical power. Then Gosain's arm reached back, and he hurled his pole forward to the ground at Nemari's feet.  
  
"Feel the power of the Lightning of Hell's Storms!" Nemari shrieked as his seal completed and power surged to the ends of his arms.  
  
Gosain's pole slammed into the ground in front of Nemari, and each chain's kunai struck into the ground at the end. "Lightning Chain Leech!" Gosain called.  
  
"What?" A vision of absolute horror took over Nemari's face. The two kunai glowed, one bright, one dark. Opposite charges.  
  
Orange lightning ripped out of Nemari's body, burning great waving marks as it went, striking the chains and sinking into the ground. The lightning ninja screamed a single scream as if he was being tortured in the most viscous dungeons of the world.  
  
Gosain landed behind Nemari, a kunai already in his right hand. He spun around and with a single motion stabbed the weapon into his opponent's back.  
  
Nemari's body went suddenly limp, and he collapsed immediately, breath coming in terribly wrong wheezes.  
  
Acade came over in seconds, trying to respond to the shocked silence of the crowd.  
  
The examiner put his hand to Yilosi Nemari's body, and then looked up, eyes dark. He turned to Gosain as the other ninja pulled his chains up from the ground. "You broke his neck." Acade said, voice shocked and soft. "He'll be paralyzed for the rest of his life." It was an accusation.  
  
"I had to do it." Gosain replied. "No one else would have." He walked off in silence.  
  
Acade called for a medic, and then turned back to face the crowd and the Kages. "Winner: Kabure Gosain!" His tone was far from joyous.  
  
Neji stood next to Shiren as they waited for Gosain to come up and meet them in the waiting room. Neji found the fight to be strange to think on. I did not expect that from Gosain. Those skills, and that creativity, to use his chains as a current to draw out the lightning. That was quick thinking, or did he expect it? Further, Neji was troubled by what had happened. Was that necessary? It seemed a terribly cruel thing to do, to deliberately cripple an opponent, even one you hated. Would I have done that to Hinata? Or to Naruto? In some dark corner of his mind Neji suspected that he would have, and he also suspected that he did not have Gosain's reasons.  
  
The older ninja walked up the stairs to meet them slowly. "Hey." He said to both Neji and Shiren as he approached. Many of the other ninja looked at him fearfully. As well they should, Neji noted. None of those who have fought so far could match that display.  
  
"A good match, Gosain." Shiren told him quietly.  
  
"I'm still in the tournament, that's what matters." Gosain replied, not smiling. He looked at Neji.  
  
"You've gotten better." Neji told him. "Perhaps we'll meet in the third round."  
  
"I'll aim for that." Gosain replied. "It's a whole lot better to lose to a teammate than to anyone else out here. Now finish this boy quickly so we can take a break already." The exhaustion of his past fight showed beneath that remark, as much as Gosain automatically hid it beneath his sturdy veneer.  
  
"Ah." Neji replied, and began his walk down.  
  
High up in the stands the stone ninja next to Xi broke the long silence of the match. "The cursed genin is stronger than I think everyone suspected, including your Raikage. I wonder if there will be a fight to equal that."  
  
"You should know the answer to that." Xi told him while the examiner announced the next match.  
  
"Ah." He replied. "That boy out there, Draci Neji. I see him. He's stronger than me for certain, probably stronger than any chuunin here. I suppose I should go place a bet on him breaking the shortest match record. I could use the money."  
  
"You had best hurry in doing that if you truly intend to, Kataishi Dar." Xi responded, finally revealing the chuunin's name.  
  
Dar recoiled slightly. "I dislike having my name trumpeted around by foreign ninja, Draci Xi." He said coldly.  
  
"Yes, well, I felt that I should mention the name, since it's your record that Neji will be breaking here." Xi gave the young chuunin a half- smile.  
  
"You know entirely too much for someone who has only just spent a month here." Dar replied angrily.  
  
"Not really." Xi said quietly, with the slightest hint of sadness in his voice. "I simply seem to have a habit of learning about the outcast and accursed." 


	24. White and Green

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Okay, so it's been a bit since I updated. Sorry, things have been busy, though they are hopefully getting better now. This chapter is really quite short, but there's enough here to make a whole chapter. For anyone waiting on Shiren's or Xi's past, I'm afraid the full story will be waiting a while (like until the climax arc begins). But I will promise that Xi will chat with Raikage once all these matches are over, and that should get a lot of stuff out in the open.  
  
Thanks to reviewers, and if FF.net is being troublesome, how unfortunate, but it makes it all that much nicer to hear from you!  
  
White and Green  
  
Neji stood facing his opponent on the battlefield, the tall lightning ninja Monihii Yon. The lightning ninja attempted to look down on Neji, despite being only a few inches taller, but no mater how he stared he could make no impression on the white eyes of his foe. Neji looked back at him dispassionately. I will finish this quickly, as a ninja should. Though Xi had laid the restriction on Neji that he could not kill anyone during the tournament, 'regardless of whether you might change the course of the battle that way,' he was more than confident that he could defeat his enemy. This ninja's abilities are surely in the same vein as his twin brother's. He is not weak, but he is not on the same level as I am. I will end this in a single attack, if he can stop me, then I will consider my options from there. That was Neji's resolution.  
  
From the corner of his eye Neji could observe Shiren and Gosain, as well as the other ninja of the tournament, looking on. Gosain had a grim and tired look, but he seemed very sure of his convictions. Shiren was looking on with a soft smile, not cheering, but Neji could recognize her support. Two will cheer for me at least, better than the last time I was in a match like this, he remarked inwardly. I wonder, perhaps even Xi hopes for my victory, if he cares at all.  
  
"Fifteen meters separate them." Dar said sideways to Xi, high up in the stands. "I would say this takes twelve seconds."  
  
"Eight." The dragon ninja said immediately, his tone absolute, the statement of an established fact.  
  
"Really?" Dar asked seriously. "I think it will take a moment or two to block whatever attack the Lightning ninja offers." All about them the crowd was muttering a bout the two contenders. Few knew anything about Neji, his Hyuuga lineage had not been revealed in the program, and the leaf ninja was obscure to the watchers from stone. Skilled ninja in the audience, however, were looking down at the field intently. This was the genin who led the team that had discerned hidden ANBU, and had slain twenty- one genin from Hidden Waterfall. They wondered about his capabilities, about how strong this leaf ninja truly was.  
  
"Watch," Xi replied. "See the nature of the dragon ninja, and of the eyes of the Hyuuga."  
  
Dar turned his gaze back down to the open field; his right hand gripped the hilt of his sword.  
  
The examiner, looking rather angry, walked up between the two of them. "Let's try to avoid any career ending injuries in this fight gentlemen." He told both younger ninja. "It's made the crowd rather testy."  
  
Neji gave a slight nod in response, but Yon gave a viscous grin. "Heh, I ought to take Nemari's vengeance out of your hide, Leaf boy."  
  
"I would have offered you the chance to give up." Neji said, directing his speech at the examiner, not Yon, obviously making the lightning ninja extremely angry. "Now it appears I should teach you a lesson."  
  
Acade's face showed no response. He raised his hand high. The crowd tensed. "The final match of the fourth round: Monihii Yon of Cloud versus the sole entry from the Leaf: Draci Neji!"  
  
"Begin!"  
  
Neji's legs filled with chakra, and he slid forward in a motion that could not truly be called a run, the motion so smooth and focused it seemed that he simply was gliding across the ground, blasting toward Yon like an arrow loosed from a bow. His arms hung loose close to his sides.  
  
A gasp rode from the crowd at the strange sudden charge, and Yon's eyes widened, for he could see the face of Neji, and saw the terrible change that had occurred, the taught veins and twisted lenses that focused the vision of the Byakugan. There seemed to be some desperation in his moment even as he pulled eight shuriken and threw them in a perfect arc toward Neji.  
  
Arms snapped up at a speed almost too fast to see, and with eight swift motions shuriken flew aside, flying apart to stick some distance away in the ground. Neji did not miss a single step, and did not slow an iota.  
  
Yon hadn't even the time to realize his own doom.  
  
Two great cracking slaps split the arena, as Neji smashed into Yon's chest, his hands bursting over the lungs, driving the air from his body and closing tenkentsu after tenkentsu. Ribs bruised beneath clothes, blood burst from Yon's mouth, and his heart skipped a beat from the tremendous force of the blow.  
  
Even before the force of the blow sent the lightning ninja flying into the ground, Neji had followed his strikes with two more attacks, extending his first two fingers he slammed shut every tenkentsu on the shoulders, so that the arms went instantly limp. Yon struck the ground full on with his back, lacking the ability to roll.  
  
The lightning ninja shuddered once, and coughed blood. He gasped and wheezed, but did not have the strength to stand. His legs spasmed randomly, but he made to moves and did not speak.  
  
Neji stood calmly with a kunai in his hand, ready to throw should it prove necessary.  
  
Acade was instantly next to the fallen Monihii Yon. He checked the body with swift hands. "Bruised ribs, maybe broken, but no other serious injuries." He muttered to himself. "Get medics!" He then shouted as he stood. Turning to face the Kage's seated far above, Acade called out in a clear voice. "Winner: Draci Neji!"  
  
Neji put his kunai away and walked past the fallen Yon on his way back to the waiting room. "Bad luck in the opponent you drew." He said to the lightning ninja in passing. For the rest, he was quite satisfied with what had gone on.  
  
"The first round has concluded." Acade called out to the crowd. "We will now break for lunch and to allow the competitors some time to recover. The second round will begin with the match of Aburanki Kei and Tonetero!"  
  
* * *  
  
The remaining contestants gathered for lunch in the waiting room, at small benches that were not comfortable in the slightest. They were kept well heated, instead of the blustery wind of the outdoor stadium, but there were dark looks now. Eight ninja remained, and they gave each other devious looks as the forced themselves to consume the meager offering that had been given. There was no contact with the outside, Examiner Acade watched them, and their jounin had to remain up in the stands.  
  
Neji sat with Shiren and Gosain on a long bench. They ate in silence, focusing on what was to come. Gosain looked tired, but he was quickly regaining energy. Others edged away from Neji, not wanting to approach him, or Gosain. They had proved themselves dangerous.  
  
The remaining stone ninja, Tsukabe Ota, did not eat; he simply sat cross-legged on the floor, composed and ready. His face was serene. Gosain's opponent. Neji recognized the power in the man. He is very strong. It will be very difficult for Gosain, and he has already fought a very difficult fight. I may have to face him. So Neji took his measure of the stone ninja, an adolescent who looked completely mature. Ota was focused, adult in a way that many ninja would never achieve. He and Gosain are the oldest ninja here, Neji determined. They have seen the world.  
  
Contemplating the Stone ninja, Neji was almost completely surprised when the young lady from Grass, Aburanki Kei, joined his team.  
  
"What do you want?" Shiren asked pleasantly, reacting quickly to the Grass ninja's approach.  
  
Her speech was open, and exposed, heads turned. Tsukabe Ota and Monihii Waru did not bother to watch once they noticed what was happening, but the two other Grass ninja stared at Kei, and the eyes of Tonetero held something truly foul.  
  
"I wished to speak with you, team fifty-eight." Kei said. Her voice was harsh, defensive, but somehow desperate.  
  
Neji did not respond, he decided to let Shiren speak instead. I think she will handle this better than I.  
  
"So speak." Shiren said simply. "We've nothing to hide, though you'll understand if I don't start spouting secrets."  
  
"That doesn't matter." Kei replied. She moved closer, trying to put Neji between herself and Tonetero. Neji, catching a shift in Shiren's glance, stood up and blocked her in, shielding the grass ninja. When that was done Kei spoke again. "I am going to lose my next match." She said frankly, with a fatal certainty.  
  
"Hardly the best attitude." Shiren quipped.  
  
"It's not my way to lie to myself." Kei said fiercely. "But I cannot beat Tonetero, he is a terror. I will do my best, but I will lose the next fight, and I may well die. Tonetero has a grudge against me, since I am the one who leads our team, at least, so our jounin says."  
  
Shiren nodded quietly, her eyes understood Kei's words. "What do you want from us?" She asked, considering.  
  
"You are strong." Kei told them all. "Stronger than anyone here I suspect. I would ask for you to consider my request. You especially, Senirai Shiren, since when you win he will become your opponent."  
  
"You are awfully sure I will win." Shiren smiled softly, creeping lines of amusement in her eyes.  
  
Of course you will win Shiren. Neji thought, but he found her modesty both amusing and admirable. I wonder if I could have said that?  
  
"You will win." Kei said, sad and assured. "And I ask, when the time comes. Avenge me!" It was a hissed whisper, dark and terrible, and spoke of hidden horrors and tormented sins in the past.  
  
Shiren's midnight blue eyes flashed. The smile disappeared from her face. "If you wish that, then I will."  
  
"You will owe Shiren for this, Aburanki Kei." Neji said from behind her. "Do not forget that."  
  
Kei looked at Shiren, and seeing the stern look on her dark face, nodded slightly. "If I survive, I will someday make good on the debt. You have my word."  
  
"Very well then, I will do my best." Shiren told Kei.  
  
Aburanki Kei walked away then, going back to sit with Tonetero and the third grass ninja. She looked uncomfortable in the extreme, and the thorn-covered ninja gave her a look that promised hideous and unspeakable things to come.  
  
Shiren looked at Neji seriously, probing deep into his eyes. "Is this the right thing?" She whispered, softly enough that not even Gosain could here.  
  
Neji had no sure answer. "I cannot say," He told her. "The choice is yours, but I believe you made the right decision." He paused, and then said one last thing. "I do not like his eyes, they are hollow."  
  
Silently, Shiren appeared to consider those words.  
  
Soon enough the tension filled break was over, and the eight remaining ninja ventured back out to the waiting room. There they still had to pass some time before the crowd would gather back into its seats and settle down. They were all silent as they waited, watching the empty field, going over the fights inside their minds. Four to fight again, and four whose strength was unknown, but the most heralded names would have their first matches now, and the excitement was palpable.  
  
Above in the stands, Draci Xi once again found himself sought out by the chuunin Dar. "Is my company that good?" He asked sideways at the young man. "I hadn't thought it so."  
  
"It's not." Dar replied frankly, but made no move to leave. After a time, as the first two contestants were marching out onto the field, he finally spoke to the silent Xi. "What do you expect from this match."  
  
"Something brutal." Xi answered. "That bloodline ability was supposed to have been exterminated. This Tonetero cannot be a good omen. This village experiments too much with things even more horrible than me."  
  
"An interesting benchmark." The stone ninja remarked with a soft laugh.  
  
"You have the gall to say that?" Xi's eyes gave Dar a sideways glance filled with sarcasm. The other ninja fell silent.  
  
The two grass ninja faced each other on the field of battle, as the afternoon sun broke through the clouds and the crow roared with impatience.  
  
Casting his gaze up to the Kages sitting in their high position, Xi thought he saw concern from Raikage, a cold dislike of what was coming. He also saw a morbid fascination from Tsuchikage. This amuses you old man? Xi thought. Only you could take such an interest in the first death knell of a Hidden Village. The Dragon ninja turned away. Perhaps there will be a miracle, he thought, looking at Aburanki Kei. That wouldn't be fitting though, not today. He decided only a moment later.  
  
The Examiner walked out between the two ninja. 


	25. A Thousand Edges

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: So, apologies for the slower updates, I've been busy with all sorts of stuff. Also, writing endless battles isn't really that interesting for me, so it's been harder to get into the writing. However, we're getting back toward some more interesting fights, so the update pace will pick up. Anyway, in this chapter you get to see the crazed powers of Tonetero, and Shiren fight for the first time in a while. I'm cramming this second round into two chapters with two fights apiece.  
  
Thanks for the reviews everyone!  
  
A Thousand Edges  
  
A stiff wind blew through the exam stadium and ruffled coats and clothes, and the thin branches of the frozen plants that huddled at the edges of the stadium. Tonetero stood facing Aburanki Kei, each ninja with the jagged mark upon the forehead protector of grass they bore, Kei's high up on her head, Tonetero's forgotten on the base of his leg. It was only the beginning of the contrast. The compact and lithe Kei was carefully athletic, a skilled and talented young woman of fifteen years. She looked in every way to be a female ninja of the future, and despite the grassy branches she bore, was nothing more than human. Tonetero was something else. Thorns grew out from his flesh, the skin opening to let the brown and razor sharp edges cut out to form a second skin of deadly armor. Above his eyes they pierced his forehead like horns, and what appeared at first to be spiked hair was a crop of thorns that extended from his skull. His skin was ridged and bark-like and his eyes were circular pits, brown and brown as he opened them to face Kei, all the white gone. His age was impossible to guess, this creature that appeared almost more plant than man. Yet his mouth had a terrible and animalistic grin.  
  
"What is he?" Dar whispered to Xi, as they watched both combatants take the field, the stone ninja's voice was harsh and accusational.  
  
"A bearer of the Echiri bloodline, a bloodline that was supposedly ended forty years in the past, when the last two who held it and all their clan was destroyed in the war between Grass and Rain." Xi answered quietly. "It allows the bearer to command plants and bend them to his will, even insert them into the body. It is extremely dangerous."  
  
"I see." Dar replied, dour. "Well, if the bloodline was destroyed how does this body possess its powers?"  
  
"I do not know, but the possibilities are not good. Either someone survived, or the Grass ninja have done something forbidden." Xi did not say it, but he recalled a similar case. This is too like the creation of Gaara of the Desert, is the same hand behind both children?  
  
Though they lacked Xi's knowledge, Shiren and Neji were watching the match with no less interest. Gosain also looked on, but he was focusing on recovering as much of his depleted chakra as possible before the next fight. Shiren has promised to fight this man, to avenge this match. Neji did not like the thought, looking at Tonetero. He is not like the rest of us. He is like me, a creature that kills. Silently Neji looked on, hoping he would see a method that would reveal a path to victory for Shiren.  
  
Examiner Acade took his place between the two Grass ninja. He looked stern, and angry. "Keep this clean." He hissed at the two grass ninja, eying Tonetero. "There's been enough trouble already."  
  
Tonetero didn't even bother to look at the examiner in response.  
  
Acade raised his right hand, and fingered a kunai with his left.  
  
The arm silenced the whispered and speculating crowd. Then it fell. "Begin!"  
  
Kei jumped back at the same moment as the examiner, placing a great deal of distance between herself and her opponent. Tonethero didn't even move, didn't tense for battle, but stood relaxed in front of his teammate, grinning sickeningly.  
  
Pulling the branches from her back, Kei slammed them into the ground, and focused on Tonetero. Her gaze was set, and her feet poised. Looking from afar though, Neji could see the desperation in her eyes. She does not want to do this, he determined. She expects something terrible to happen.  
  
For a moment Kei did nothing, and Tonetero spoke. "What's the matter Kei? Don't want to fight me? I know you don't, but if you're scared, why don't you give up?" He mocked her mercilessly.  
  
"You're right, I don't want to fight you." Kei answered levelly. "It's insane." She said matter-of-factly. "But this was what I was ordered to do as part of my mission to become a chuunin, and I won't refuse my orders." She placed her hands above the branches. "Grass element: Woven Leaf Spear!" Spears of Grass surged up and separated from those branches, a myriad formation that had proven its worth in the previous round.  
  
Kei threw the weapons straight at Tonetero. He looked at her in amusement. "I thought you knew better."  
  
When her opponent made no move to block or dodge Kei simply let the spears of grass strike into Tonetero's chest, as deadly as any combination of wood and steal was that woven point.  
  
The grass ninja sprouted two great wooden extensions in the middle of his chest, and bent back from the force of the blow, but his torso snapped upright a moment later. The spears had stuck completely through him, but there was not a drop of blood to be seen. As the shocked crowd watched the spears broke apart into their grassy constituents, thousands of sharp leaf blades, and filled into Tonetero's body or slid around his skin, covering him in a coating of green that melded so perfectly it disappeared in moments. Though his clothing was torn, his flesh was undamaged. "You think to use those techniques against me?" He asked incredulously. "You know that can't harm me."  
  
What a horrible ability. Neji thought from above. So such weapons are useless against him? He is simply immune to techniques that use plants. Does that mean he can see through the replacement technique as well? Looking down Neji suspected that to be true, for Kei had not formed grass clones, though she had been given a good opportunity to do so.  
  
Kei was looking at Tonetero with a viscous horror, but it was stale. She expected this. Neji noted. That attack was only to confirm it for sure. But what will she do now; her grass attacks cannot harm him?  
  
As Tonetero and the rest of the crowd looked on Kei reached down into her shuriken pouch. Swiftly her hands moved, and she dropped shuriken after shuriken into the weave of her grassy branches before her, a lethal minefield of metal hidden among the boughs.  
  
Tonetero hissed. "Heh. Try it then, Kei."  
  
The lady grass ninja obliged him. She whipped her branches together, and the grass molded itself to fit them into a single weapon. "Life Reaper Shuriken!" Kei cried as she hurled the mammoth weapon at Tonetero.  
  
The great weapon surged inward; Tonetero watched without reaction, and at the final instant Kei formed the seal that exploded the grass structure apart, sending a hail of shuriken everywhere around her enemy.  
  
A feral lash of thorns erupted from Tonetero's body, whipping before him like the wind and blowing back everything in front of his body, scattering shuriken and grass and branches away like dust. "You cannot penetrate the Storm of Thorns with that!" Tonetero laughed with hideous glee.  
  
Neji saw that whipping cocoon in all its terrible power, a blast of spines that could block any oncoming force, and could strike back to rip apart an opponent like a thousand spears. It's like Gaara's shield of sand, but it's not the same. Neji looked closely, examining Tonetero with the refined vision of the Byakugan for a spare moment. He's controlling it with his body, but the control is internal, his chakra shifts thorns within his hands, making seals and altering the Thorn Storm. It acts with his will and uses his chakra, so he cannot maintain that for long, but he's much faster than Gaara's sand shield was. It moves at the speed of his chakra, even Lee would not be able to strike him. It doesn't matter if you are faster, he can make it turn faster than any pure speed would allow.  
  
Even as Tonetero laughed with glee and the crowd gasped at the power of his strange bloodline ability, Aburanki Kei was already acting. Her face set in a glare of grim determination; she had moved even as her attack was dashed apart by the storm of thorns.  
  
Kei leapt high, coming down arcing at Tonetero, a kunai held in both hands, positioned before her body, so that all her strength and the strength of her fall would carry her through.  
  
Seeing the move from above Xi raised his estimation of the Grass ninja. "This one knows how to fight." He muttered to Dar.  
  
The Stone chuunin nodded silently, his face dark and sad.  
  
By positioning herself that way she focuses all her force against a single point. Xi observed. Even if he lashes her with thorns, Kei will still come through to strike. It is a hard move, but she understands the principles of moves that kill.  
  
"It won't do anything but get her hurt." Dar said as Tonetero turned his head and reacted to Kei.  
  
So does this chuunin. Xi thought, as the impact struck.  
  
Thorn struck ninja, but not a dispersed blast as before. Tonetero controlled the storm of thorns, forcing it into a solid spear form, striking right back at Kei's kunai, and matching her force completely.  
  
They hung suspended in the air for a second.  
  
Then the thorns stopped her completely, and exploded out as she began to fall.  
Sharp and barbed, a hundred thorns lashed the flesh of Aburanki Kei, ripping open deep and jagged cuts, that would both bleed endlessly and sting terribly, scourging muscle so that it could barely function. Kei struck the ground with a horrible thud.  
  
Tonetero looked at her, body bleeding and in agony, and he laughed. "That's all Kei?" He mocked. "I thought you were sturdier than that. After all, you claimed you didn't need me to become a chuunin. Where is your strength?"  
  
Blood seeping from her mouth Kei spat and coughed to clear her throat, and managed to rise to one knee. "I don't need you, you monster." She said clearly and openly through her mangled visage at Tonetero. She pulled a kunai from her holster with a shaking hand, and drew a circle around herself in the dirt. The moment she completed it the kunai fell from her hand.  
  
Tonetero stood a short distance away, towering over her. "Go ahead and try whatever trick you have left. It means nothing."  
  
"It means many things." Dar whispered next to Xi, and the dragon ninja nodded.  
  
This is important, for this girl at least, though she surely knows she will fail. Sometimes a ninja must go forward even when defeat is certain.  
  
"Grass Whirlwind." Kei made seals over her circle in the dirt.  
  
The grass on the field bent deeply, as a wind blew over it in a swirling pattern. The wind began in the circle Kei held, but it did not end there. It cut out over the field, less than an inch above the ground, slicing blades of grass in two, and sending them high into the air, taught as it being pulled to heaven, and sharp enough to mark stone, a rain of needles that rose from below.  
  
There were too many for any simple wall of thorns to block, but the guard about Tonetero whirled on its own, in a strange pattern that was too swift to see, and blocked blade after blade of grass. Though they could not have harmed him in the first place, the monstrous ninja took an obvious pride in letting not a single blade touch him.  
  
That is a potent defense. Neji saw. It moves so fast that it avoids presenting weak points for more than the barest instant, so that nothing gets through. How do you penetrate it? The darker thought behind that was, how does Shiren?  
  
Kei collapsed face forward as her move completed, and Tonetero approached slowly. "Useless fool." He said to the crowd. "You should know better than to try to strike me with such things." Long thorns extended from his fists like blades.  
  
"Stop!" Examiner Acade moved in front of Tonetero. "Your opponent cannot continue the match. It is over." He said sternly.  
  
"Fine." Tonetero said. "I'll kill her for her treachery later."  
  
The examiner gave the grass ninja a dark look, and the crowd replied with a gasp. High above, standing next to Xi, Dar's sword slid loose a few inches.  
  
"I hope you don't intend to try anything." Xi muttered to him. "This is internal politics, and not our business."  
  
"Any foreigner who draws a weapon against another ninja in the village of Stone may be struck down immediately by any Stone ninja who witnesses it." Dar replied softly. "No one else will, but I will keep a watch, drawing a thorn is drawing a weapon."  
  
"A dangerous assumption that your superiors will see it that way." Xi half-smiled at Dar.  
  
"Then hope your own team manages to prevent such a thing." The stone chuunin was gone then.  
  
"Winner: Tonetero!" Examiner Acade called from the field, though Xi barely heard it as he considered the stone ninja who had approached him. More than I expected, Kataishi Dar. I wonder what his purpose in speaking to me was? Then he turned back to the stadium, for Shiren was descending to her match.  
  
Lightning ninja and grass ninja met twice on that battlefield. First, Tonetero brushed by Monihii Waru. The twin had the strength of will to stand steady and not tremble, but little more, and his discomfort was apparent to all. He turned back to glare at the approaching Shiren, transforming fear into anger. Yet the second meeting was the far more important one. Shiren walked over to the stretcher Kei had been placed upon by a group of medics. The grass ninja was pale and bloody, the cuts had seeped and run, covering her in a sickly red that threatened to clog her breathing.  
  
Kei's eyes were clear as she looked up to Shiren lean over her stretcher. "So, I lost." She said through bloody lips, forcing the whisper out. "So you must be the one to win."  
  
Shiren nodded, and placed her hand over Kei's. She leaned down and spoke into Kei's ear, so that only the other female ninja could hear. "I see why he needs to be beaten." She whispered. "But why must it be me?"  
  
"We are alike." Kei croaked the reply through her pain. "Those who stand strong in the shadow of another." She coughed, and one of the medics moved forward, but Kei motioned him away. "I had to fight my opposite too soon, and I lost, but you must win that. Prove that we are not always the weaker ones, the shadowy ones who stand behind."  
  
Shiren nodded, but did not whisper to Kei anymore.  
  
The medics took the severely wounded Grass ninja away, leaving only Shiren and Waru standing on the field with the examiner.  
  
Tonetero returned to the stands, and he faced dark looks from the three ninja who remained. As he stood against the stands the eyes of those three met, and there was a resolution there. From Gosain to Neji, to the Stone ninja Tsukabe Ota, the silent agreement was passed using only the eyes, something ninja could do. It went as follows: This monster, no matter who faces him, he must fall, all energy put toward that. For these three, in the other bracket, there was the hope that it would not be that. Neji and Gosain hoped Shiren would win, but even the stolid stone ninja obviously favored the victory of whichever lightning ninja should face the grass ninja. No grass ninja will win this chuunin exam; these three ninja had resolved to spend every ounce of their strength to prevent it.  
  
When the medics had exited the field Examiner Acade again moved to his place between the two ninja. "The Second match of this round, two genin from Hidden Cloud. Senirai Shiren versus Monihii Waru!"  
  
There was little response, for the crowd was listless. It had already been decided that which of these lightning ninja was victorious they would fall to Tonetero. Besides, who wanted to see these two unimportant ninja fight? The twin had already proved he was nothing special, and this girl could not be impressive, Kabure Gosain was the strength of that team, so the thinking proceeded. Only Neji, Xi, and Gosain looked down at this fight with true interest, and it was Neji who held the greatest concern. It has been a month Shiren, he recalled. What have you done? Will you win? Neji deeply hoped it would be so, he believed, and he wished. For once, he did not try to judge the battle, he simply watched Shiren, and stood silently supportive of his teammate.  
  
"Begin!" Acade's arm swung down.  
  
Shiren reached down with a smooth and bitterly quick motion, pulling shuriken and throwing them, taking the measure of her enemy.  
  
Fast! Neji saw. Very, very fast, nearly perfect. Her chakra control has increased, as has her speed. He cannot block that, he can't see!  
  
Monihii Waru did not block the oncoming strikes, with arms that seemed encased in mud compared to Shiren's swift and precise motions, he pulled his own shuriken and threw them forward, not even glancing at the path they took.  
  
Metal darts crashed into each other and clanged aside.  
  
What? Neji looked at the exchange. There's no way such sloppy taijutsu should have blocked those. Any ninja without motion like Xi's or eyes like mine would have been very hard pressed to block those, and this lightning ninja hasn't the skill. How did he throw them in the path? Then Neji saw it. He predicted the motion! He knows Shiren's method!  
  
It was a frightening thought, for Neji knew the full implications of this. Shiren is fighting an opponent that has learned her. He could not know how, they must have fought before, many times, it was the only way. Perhaps they had served on a team, or under the same sensei, regardless, he could see and understand what it meant. Just like Lee, and I. I learned all his techniques, all his fighting styles, so that even without the Byakugan I could predict and counter his movements. He was able to learn me in return, but has Shiren learned this lightning ninja?  
  
Waru gave Shiren a dark smile, almost a laugh, as she noted the fall of her shuriken. "You should have expected that we'd remember."  
  
"Twins." Shiren spat the word. "Each one contributes his knowledge of an opponents fighting style to the other innately, so that you learn an opponent from two different perspectives, mastering an opponent's abilities in only a few matches."  
  
"Exactly." Waru did laugh now; filling the silence that had been left by this revelation, the proclamation of a truly uninteresting fight, one where all the moves of a ninja were countered foolishly by another ninja. "You've improved Shiren, but even with better skills, you can't beat someone who knows all your moves."  
  
"All my moves?" Shiren raised an eyebrow. "You're an idiot." She smiled happily. "This will be easier than I thought."  
  
"Don't mock me!" Waru shouted. His hands flashed through the same seal pattern he'd used in his last fight. "Lightning Element: Ball Lightning no jutsu!" The blasts of lightning energy sprung forward and arched around, coming at Shiren from many angles. "Block this!"  
  
Shiren rolled forward, ducking under the first impacting sphere, and then changed motion in mid-roll, surging right, and flipping upward. She came up with a kunai in her left hand, and hurled it at the immobile Waru, forced him to relax his control of the ball lightning for a second.  
  
It was only a second, but the balls of lightning energy held still in midair. Only a second, but Shiren was fast enough. She reached into her shuriken pouch, and her hands came free filled with shuriken. "Lightning element: Multiple Spark Star no jutsu!"  
  
Four stars of shuriken, held together by lightning, and centered around hilt-less kunai, forming a web of energy and steel, launched out from Shiren's hands, perfectly targeted at her immobile targets.  
  
Stars grabbed ball lightning, taking it to the ground and holding it within their forms, trapping the spheres useless and grounded.  
  
Waru's mouth snapped open and closed. "You!" He hissed.  
  
"Your tricks are trapped, and you might as well get rid of them, they use to much chakra." Shiren said calmly.  
  
"Bitch." Waru spat, and the ball lightning faded into dust. He pulled out his own kunai. "I'll gut you."  
  
Shiren matched the move, and they closed, charging forward. Shiren's movements smooth and directed, but Waru's going to her position with perfect prediction. He knew her destination, and had moved to intercept. Knowing the move the counter is far easier than actually completing the move, despite her advantage in ability, Shiren could not succeed.  
  
She has you, Neji saw, that's not the true attack.  
  
In one of the stars she had thrown out before, there was buried a kunai with a wire attached to the end.  
  
Shiren's left foot slammed down only inches from crashing into Waru, like a whipcord pulled she spun backwards, twirling faster than the eye could track, the ground beneath her feet literally crackling with the energy unleashed. "Lightning anchor!" Shiren's spin reached its end and the charged kunai ripped outwards, spiraling out to electrocute its target mercilessly, and with great speed.  
  
"Even is you use that move, I still know it!" Waru had already begun his complex dodge maneuver from the moment Shiren began to spin, charging along the outer edge of the anchor's spin, where the line would come slowest, and when the kunai had ripped free he leapt. The tall twin was launched in a long arc, a slow and exposed motion, but one that would carry him over that flashing wire that threatened with deadly force.  
  
"You know nothing!" As Waru jumped Shiren slashed her right hand, the hand that controlled that lethal wire, downwards. The kunai shivered, and then slammed into the ground.  
  
High above in the stands two men wore identical expressions of shock. One was Draci Xi, who clutched the handrail in excitement. The other was Raikage, who had stood up suddenly, hand on his sword hilt. They saw, and they knew. That kunai should not fall!  
  
So, that is how she uses her improved taijutsu. Neji thought, and he felt a surge of happiness, knowing that Shiren would win, and that he had helped her achieve this.  
As the kunai on the end of her wire touched the earth, Shiren had one in each hand, and she held spinning band of electrical force in her right hand, low and against her body. Her left hand was held wide.  
  
Kunai struck the ground, and stopped. Force snapped back along the taught wire, all the power propelling the lightning anchor sought to pull past, and with Shiren holding it, it pulled her.  
  
Waru was out of range of Shiren, his arc carried him across her backside, so that she could not throw and continue the lightning anchor at the same time, but now she threw as part of the move. "Counterspin!"  
  
Shiren's body was pulled along and spun like a top, her arms flashing wide and brightly, pulled into perfect alignment with her flying target, a counterforce to a target that dodged the swirling strike, and one that shot forth with all its power.  
  
Slingshotted from her hands the kunai traveled blistering fast, and a tremendous crack broke over the stadium from the very speed of their passage through the air.  
  
Monihii Waru took both in the right side, and the force of the impact carried him many meters through the air, and he slid along the ground into the exam wall with a soft thud. His body collapsed suddenly, with not even a gasp or spasm, all the strength driven out.  
  
The crowd drew in a single breath.  
  
Acade was next to the fallen lighning ninja in moments, examining his wounds. "Medics!" He called, and ripped out the kunai.  
  
The medics trotted over, but the wounds Waru had suffered, while grievous, were not life threatening.  
  
Special Jounin Acade stood in the center of the arena. "Winner: Senirai Shiren!"  
  
The crowd let out the breath in a roar of applause. 


	26. Without, Within

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: All right, here we go to finish off the rest of the second round. And then I can move on to the best and most important of the fights (meaning the ones I've been thinking about since before they even got to Stone). In any case, while this chapter may not be the best, the next couple will hopefully be really good.  
  
Oh, and for some reason fanfiction.net decided that I didn't need a space on the main page the last time I updated for some strange reason. Hopefully that problem will not repeat.  
  
Thanks to all who read and review, feedback helps me keep going!  
  
Without, Within  
  
Shiren returned to the waiting room only to watch Gosain pass out down the stairs, his face grim and set. He nodded at her as she passed, but said nothing.  
Neji managed a warmer reaction. "Well fought." He told her, with as much warmth as his voice was capable, and smiled, a truly genuine expression, not the harsh mocking smile that he had always worn in the past.  
"Thanks." Shiren returned, moving to stand next to him at the railing. "Hopefully Gosain will do as well."  
Neji gave the barest shake of his head. "That ninja, Ota, will not be easily defeated."  
"Gosain's strong though." Shiren returned, trying to be positive.  
It was not hard for Neji to see that she to expected this to be extremely difficult for Gosain, but that she still hoped for him to win. Neji also noted that he shared the sentiment. Gosain has surely achieved his goal even with his first fight, so this doesn't matter toward whether or not he becomes a chuunin, but I would still like to see him pass this obstacle. Certainly it would be better to face him than this stone ninja.  
So he stood next to Shiren and looked on, silently supporting the third ninja of their team, the one who had been forced to face his tests before the two of them.  
Tsukabe Ota and Kabure Gosain were similar men, sturdy ninja who did not stand out in any real way, obviously strong, but not ones to flaunt it. Gosain was at least a year, perhaps more, older than Ota, but they had similar gazes. These two ninja both understood the harshness of the ninja world in a way few genin achieved before becoming chuunin. As they faced each other it was with respect, ready to test the strength of their opponent.  
Examiner Acade stepped between them, and the crowd grew silent. Above, Xi caught the mutters. Since the break this match had been much spoken of. The surprisingly skilled Lightning ninja, the cursed genin, to match up against the strongest genin of Stone, the ninja who had built his strength from no special beginnings to wield the strength of mountains, Tsukabe Ota. When Acade raised his hand absolute silence fell, and high above the Kages shared one last, competing glance, and then focused in on the two small genin upon whom so many were now focused.  
"Begin!"  
Gosain charged, his steel pole extended.  
Ota did not move, but drew a kunai and guarded himself.  
The weapons met with a terrible clang, and Gosain flew backward, propelled through the air and the remnants of grass, skidding to a stop only a short distance from the stadium edge. Strong! He noted. There's incredible power behind his taijutsu, but I have the maneuverability advantage.  
Hmm...he strikes with a force to almost match Gai-sensei. Neji observed, but he seems to lack speed. If Gosain can use his chains effectively...  
Gosain did not waste any time making the attempt. He pulled out the long strands of chain and advanced, spinning them slowly along the ground. When only a short distance separated them he flung the chains up into the air, and dashed forward to attack. "Whirling Stormfront!"  
Ota brought his hands together without even looking at the oncoming chains. With deliberate chair he formed a series of seals.  
The name of the jutsu was lost beneath the thunderous impact of Gosain's slashing and crushing chains.  
The storm of metal drew back, and the crowd gasped as Ota stood there unharmed. Gosain's eyes narrowed. He's covered himself in stone! Bastard! Indeed, Ota's skin was covered in a protective skin of brown stone, apparently drawn up from the ground all about him There were nicks and dings in the skin were Gosain had struck, but no damage had been inflicted.  
"What do you call that trick?" Gosain asked his stone opponent.  
"Unmoving Stone Form." Ota answered with a voice slow and crumbling, speaking around stone that covered even his face.  
Damn, that skin will protect him against my chains, and no kunai's going through it. Gosain circled around, watching Ota turn and observe him. "I'll blow that skin right off!" Gosain shouted. "Stormlash Winds!"  
He spun the chains in a cyclic circle, kicking up a great storm of viscous and cutting winds that sheared the grass from the ground and kicked a tremendous amount of dust into the air. Even the stadium walls seemed to groan when struck by that terrible storm. Yet, Ota's skin endured unchanged.  
It would have worked against Gaara, Neji determined from his observation place. But that skin is not sand, but solid rock. He's not using chakra to hold it in place; he uses chakra to make his body flex it. It still requires tremendous strength to lift, which is why he hasn't moved much. Still, it can't be blown or ripped off so easily.  
Standing next to him Shiren muttered. "What a trick, but there's got to be a weak point. There's always a weak point."  
Neji nodded, and he looked more closely at Ota.  
The battle went on even as watchers observed, as Gosain continued to circle his still immobile opponent and looked for a way to strike. Finally he gritted his teeth and made a decision. I can't break through or scrape off that armor, so I guess I'll have to strike through it using lightning. That technique uses up too much chakra though, and I still haven't fully recovered from the last fight. I don't like it. Gosain knew the answer to that problem however; I have to do it anyway.  
Gosain spun his swirling chains high and wide, and Ota's eyes followed the motion. "Chain Lightning Energy!" Chakra blasted down the chains, converted quickly into electricity, making the chains living lightning bolts. They crashed down, one on each side of Ota, and streaked in to strike his sides.  
The stone ninja took one chain strike full on his stony armor, and showed no reaction. As for the other, his left hand reached out and snatched it. Gosain's chakra poured down the chain and into Ota, and the stone armor began to glow with frightful heat in seconds, but that was all the time there was a connection.  
Ota pulled hard on the steel chain, with a great and sudden force, pulling Gosain in to him.  
Shit! Gosain had time to think, and he struggled to retain a grip on his pole, bracing for the Stone ninja's counter.  
"Fist of the Mountain Core!" Tsukabe Ota's right hand, covered in thick stone armor, slammed into Gosain's midsection with a hideous crack that split the stadium. The lightning ninja flew backwards all the way to the wall, to hit with a horrible thud, cratering the wall, and sliding to the ground.  
Yet Gosain still held his chain. In fact, as the dust cleared the crowd saw that a cage of chains had emerged behind him, cushioning the strike against the wall just enough. Always keep a hold of your weapon if you want to survive. Gosain smiled as he struggled to rise.  
Ota made the best use of his time, striding forward, but he did not let go of his stone armor. Instead he moved with a slow and deliberate pace. With each step he took the stone around his leg surged outward, opening a path so he could move it forward, never breaking contact with the ground.  
Gosain, Neji, and Shiren, all searching for the weakpoint in this defense, all saw it at the same moment. He has to touch the ground for his armor to work!  
Shuddering against the support of his pole, Gosain rose to one knee. Ota's eyes widened as he raised up the pole.  
Lightning surged down the chains and they raced forward under the manipulative force of Gosain's chakra, surrogates for a body that could not stand yet. Gosain brought his pole above his head, gripping it in both hands. "Ground surge!"  
The kunai heads of the chains slammed into the ground on either side of Ota. Thunder smote into the ground, and a rippling surge impacted it. For a sole instant a separation occurred between Ota and the ground.  
Armor began to crumble the second separation occurred.  
"Whirling Stormfront!" Gosain lashed his chains beneath Ota's body, lifting him up further, striking all along the legs are the armor began to separate. He began to hope.  
Then a sudden weakness wracked Gosain, and his chains spasmed for a moment. Shit! Not enough chakra!  
The chains snapped to equilibrium a second later, but Ota was observant, and he had sensed the moment to counter. Again he grabbed the chains in his left hand, this time the sharp kunai head drew blood, but the stone ninja ignored the pain and yanked backwards.  
"So I lose." Gosain muttered as he flew toward the stone ninja.  
"Fist of the Mountain Core!" The blow slammed Gosain in the stomach, and forced blood out of his mouth. He collapsed in front of Ota on the ground.  
"Gosain!" Shiren called from the waiting room, and she appeared ready to jump down.  
"No Shiren." Neji said quietly, extending an arm in front of her. "We can't do anything from here. Besides, Gosain knows we care. What matters is how that stone ninja acts."  
Shiren nodded. But then spat out. "I hate to see him go down like that."  
For Gosain, lying in the dirt in a maze of pain, it was unpleasant in the extreme. Then he felt a sturdy hand turn him over so he could face upright. Unable to move, he found himself looking into the face of Tsukabe Ota.  
"Almost." The stone ninja said. "But almost doesn't matter."  
"Heh." Gosain spat through the blood in his mouth. "What matters is who's alive at the end of the day, so tell that examiner to get the damn medics."  
"Ah." Ota turned away.  
There are worse ninja to lose to. Gosain took that much as solace against his disappointment. But you'd better crush him in the next round Neji.  
"Winner: Tsukabe Ota!" The Examiner announced.  
Neji and Shiren stared down as the medics came and took Gosain away on a stretcher, Neji ignoring that his next match came soon until Gosain was off the field. He found the whole situation disappointing. Gosain would likely have won if Nemari had not been his opponent in the first round. Still, this is not about victory, it is about becoming a chuunin. That much seems likely decided.  
"Shiren." Neji turned to her. "I have to deal with this grass ninja, but I expect there will be another pause before the next series of fights. So I will speak to you then."  
"Thanks." She replied, but her eyes remained sad. "Let's get to that part right away."  
The sadness in her eyes was not something Neji wished to see, but he accepted that this was a difficult moment. Shiren was closer to Gosain than he had been, and it was certainly hard to see him go down even for Neji.  
He jumped down to the stadium easily, not bothering to use the stairs. No need to waste anyone's time.  
His opponent had walked the distance slowly, and was already there. A simple looking grass ninja with pride in his step. Like all the members of the grass team he was similar to Neji in age, but he did not impress Neji. One a monster, one a strong girl, and then this one, nothing to bother me. The least of the three he is, and I will deal with this quickly, just as before. Doshiyre Masan wore his confidence obviously, but Neji could read him, and he knew this was simply a reaction to avoiding the wrath of Tonetero that had fallen upon Kei. The pair of ninja stood apart. "Do you truly expect to beat me?" Neji asked Masan simply. "You're fast, you block kunai, and you hit hard." Masan listed offhandedly. "Not bad, but I can beat that." "Very well," Neji answered. "I suppose I will have to deal with you then." Acade took up his customary place between the pair. The crowd's enthusiasm had waned at this point. Ota's fight had gotten them excited, and they were waiting for the next matches. Most of the skilled ninja in the crowd had spread the word that Neji was almost certain to win; he had broken the all time record for quickest match after all. The grass ninja might have some skills, but it couldn't possibly do the job. So they watched, rather bored. "Begin!" Acade dropped his hand down, cutting to the start of the match. Neji brought out the Byakugan, and then he waited. His opponent made no moves to attack. "Do you know where the Grass village came from, Leaf ninja?" Masan asked him. Neji said nothing; he was watching chakra gather in Masan's body. "It was once part of the Leaf village you know. We might have left, but we can still use those techniques." Masan raised his hands and moved at lightning speed through a pattern of seals. "Fire Element: Grand Fireball no Jutsu!" The hideous blaze of burning flame shot from Masan's mouth, set to immolate anything it touched. It streaked toward Neji and encompassed his form. "Kaiten!" The fireball blasted apart to reveal Neji spinning through it and streaking toward Masan at the same time. He maintained the Kaiten whirl the entire distance to Masan, which he covered at tremendous speed, and then struck. The hit slammed Masan, who could not anticipate an attack that came from directly through his jutsu. Neji stopped he spin and pursued the grass ninja, striking again and again, four strikes in rapid succession, driving Masan to the ground. He failed to rise a moment later. Neji provided only an instant of opportunity for Masan to rise before placing a kunai at his throat. "How?" Masan managed through a mask of pain and disbelief. "Your flame jutsu is a construction of chakra, without a physical form." Neji answered. "It can be severed by the application of my own chakra, which I can release from any part of my body." High above, the on looking Xi was impressed. You combined your Kaiten with the spin of Shiren's lightning anchor. A surprising move, but effective. Beyond this he noticed something else. Your chakra reserves are increasing, this past month accomplished that much at least, even if you learned no dragon jutsus.  
"Winner: Draci Neji!" Acade called out. "There will now be an hour break before the semifinal matches. The first match to be Senirai Shiren of Hidden Cloud versus Tonetero of Hidden Grass. The second match to be Tsukabe Ota of Hidden Stone," Acade paused while the crowd cheered for their favorite. "Versus Draci Neji of Hidden Leaf." 


	27. Lady from Shadows

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Finally, I get to one of the fights that I've wanted to do since well before I started writing the whole exam arc. This one should be hopefully better than Gosain vs. Nemari, which was the last truly important bout. It's a really important chapter for Shiren, and one that really tries to show off my vision for her character. Strong female characters are rare in the Naruto universe, and I've struggled to make Shiren something more than an accessory like Sakura or TenTen. This should be the beginning of her really coming into her own.  
  
So anyway, thanks to all reviewers and I hope to hear from you about this chapter!  
  
Lady From Shadows  
  
It would prove to be a long hour, four combatants upon the field, three who had fought one battle, and one who had fought two that had not lasted even the length of the shortest of those others. They were rested and ready, their abilities still untested, but the portents had gathered. The crowd was busy, speculating, wondering, and placing bets. They circled around Draci Xi slowly, as he did not move from the edge of the stands, only watching. He heard the words, the proclamations that Tonetero was a sure winner, the carefully stockpiled hope in Tsukabe Ota, the scion of the home village, to champion stone in its chuunin exam. He had performed well, but Neji was now regarded with no small fear, for having defeated his opponents with such terrifying ease. Even Gosain had challenged Ota, and many were quickly realizing that it had not been Gosain, but Neji that led the team.  
  
Both fights interested Xi, for he was quite unsure of either outcome. The stone ninja is a strong one, and I have hobbled Neji. Will he be able to find a way to pierce that armor with out the power of the dragon? It was uncertain, and Xi was interested to see. Prove that my confidence in you is truly well placed Neji, prove that you can overcome my restriction. Even with all the possibilities upon Neji's match however, it was the other that interested Xi far more, and in this his hopes and fears were different than those of many crowd members. Senirai Shiren, he thought as he glanced toward the box where the Kages observed, catching the steadfast visage of Raikage, and seeing the other ninja return his gaze, though nothing could be read in the faces from this distance. I made a promise, Xi recalled, one I am not sure why I made, but the decision lies in your hands, soldier. Will Shiren become a chuunin or not? Will you break the promises you made to so may others, override the politics for the sake of soldiery? Xi knew the Raikage, they were of similar ages, had fought together as ANBU, had met in a chuunin exam once, and of course, eight years ago they had been caught in the stormy fate of lightning. For the sake of the strength of Cloud, to add another good soldier to the ranks, you would break those old promises that were forced upon you because of our actions, but can Shiren prove herself enough for you? This was the question that haunted Xi. The first fight had not been enough, he knew. Indeed, the dragon ninja believed almost absolutely that a victory over Tonetero would be necessary in order to impress the fact enough that Raikage could hold the evidence up to the clans, to force them to deny Shiren the rights of chuunin rank. How can she win against this one's powers? That answer Xi did not have. The maddening bloodline that defends and strikes, the two-faced power of the thorn, and coated in the blood of this mad child. What strength will break through it?  
  
So Xi stood and waited, worried for another as he rarely had ever been, for the dragon ninja the hour must pass as quickly as possible.  
  
Likewise the other dragon ninja, confined to the small waiting room, found himself wishing the time would fly by. He sat next to Shiren, having joined her the moment he returned, but they did not speak for some time. His opponent, Tsukabe Ota, sat in one corner of the room and stared clear across its length at the other corner, at Tonetero. He is not focused on me at all, Neji had recognized instantly. He had also discovered the same was true about himself. The powerful stone ninja barely brushed Neji's thoughts as he looked at Shiren out of the corner of his eye.  
  
It was Shiren who eventually broke the silence. "Tomorrow." She began, and then paused. She continued a moment later, finding her words. "Tomorrow, when we go to the hospital to visit Gosain. I think I would like to visit Kei as well." Shiren turned to Neji, and looked into his pupil- less eyes. "Neji, I want you to come with me."  
  
The request so startled Neji that he responded without thinking. "I will do that." He said instantly, and then his eyes went wide.  
  
"Thank you." Shiren told him and smiled, a strange image in her dark eyes. "Neji," She asked, voice soft and tentative. "What will you do if I am in the hospital as well? If I fail, and do not become a dragon ninja?"  
  
"I will come and see you regardless." Neji said swiftly. "And I will regretfully say my goodbyes at the last moment I must." He looked down at Shiren, seeing her dusky face and the strange sadness there. "Shiren," He said somewhat unsteadily. "I would not like to see you hurt, and even less so to see you go. We..." Neji paused, searching for words.  
  
"We are a team." Shiren finished for him. "Don't worry Neji," She said firmly. "I don't intend to lose. This is my chance, it won't pass me by." She paused again, and continued in a dark and somber tone. "After today I won't be lost in the shadows anymore, and I made a promise, one that I can't break."  
  
Though he was tempted to say similar words as he had said to Gosain, to not forget that this was an exam, Neji swallowed them there, sensing that this was far more than an exam to Shiren. "I believe in your success. Completely."  
  
Shiren smiled at him. "Then I can't possibly lose." She placed her right hand over his for the barest of moments. "I'm glad you said that."  
  
Then she pulled her hand away, and said nothing more for the rest of the hour.  
  
Of the four ninja who remained, Tonetero had the most difficultly waiting. He stared for a long time at Shiren, who refused to return his gaze, and at Ota, whose gaze was as unbreakable as a mountainside. Fed up with this he stood and walked over to Ota, apparently intending to say something.  
  
Examiner Acade interposed himself between them then. The special jounin's stance was not without fear, but his eyes were stern, and filled with something that could only be described as hatred. "You will sit down." He told Tonetero. "Any further disruptions and I will have Tsuchikage eject you from this exam."  
  
"Heh." Tonetero muttered. "Go ahead and hide behind your Kage, Examiner. I'll do as I please." He proclaimed, but he sat down.  
  
It took all too long for Neji's wishes, but when the hour ended, it seemed like the world was coming to a close.  
  
Shiren and Tonetero passed down onto the field, both jumping, neither bothering to take the tunnel.  
  
The crowd hushed as the ninja took the field and the examiner stood between them. This was the first of the semi-finals, a fight of great importance; whomsoever won here would face the other winner in the final bout to determine the victor in this chuunin exam, a position of great prestige for the country that won it. Who would it be? They all expected the Grass ninja would move on, but many hoped that Cloud would prove the stronger nation, and two of those who wished such a thing wore the robes of the Kage.  
  
Tonetero stood relaxed, ready. He wore a viscous smile of glee and hatred. His thorns twitched in the bare wind, hungry for blood. "You were the one who spoke to Kei. I look forward to smashing you, it will be one last thing to tell her before she dies."  
  
Don't underestimate Shiren you bastard! Two dragon ninja shared the same thought as they looked on.  
  
Shiren, the lithe contrast to her plant-encrusted enemy, simply ignored the comment, and nodded her head to the examiner in readiness. I cannot stop here. I will be a chuunin!  
  
Acade glanced at each ninja, first at Tonetero, his gaze filled with anger, and then more lightly at Shiren, and there was almost encouragement in the Stone ninja's face. "The first match of the Semifinals: Senirai Shiren of Cloud to face Tonetero of Grass." And there Acade snubbed Tonetero by announcing Shiren's name first.  
  
Tonetero growled.  
  
"Begin!"  
  
Shiren took a single step to the left.  
  
A torrent of thorns slashed through the place she had stood a moment before. Tonetero scowled at her. "How irritating." He spat. "I was going to break your teammate's record."  
  
Keep underestimating me and I'll find an opening in that wall. Shiren thought, and she pulled out her weapons. One kunai in each hand she dropped into a low stance. She did not bother to speak, but simply attacked.  
  
Jinnen. Neji watched. The techniques are very fast, and Shiren's speed has improved, but I think the thorns are still faster. Damn!  
  
Long thorns sprouted from Tonetero's hands as he met Shiren's attack, wood and metal met, and struck off. Shiren slashed aside both blocks with her right hand, and struck in with her left, only to be blocked by a thorn that sprouted from Tonetero's midsection.  
  
She leapt up in a quick spin that launched her over Tonetero and came down behind him. He could not turn in time, but a forest of thorns spouted from his back and Shiren had barely time to ward them off and avoid being impaled on the wooden spikes.  
  
"Enough." Tonetero shouted. Thorns burst out from his body in every direction.  
  
They impacted at Shiren with great force; even with her arms up in a strong guard she was hurled back, and felt those sharp barbs strike her again and again. Tonetero turned around to face her moments later. Shiren was bleeding from many wounds, but the cuts were not serious. She threw her kunai at him to buy time to make some distance, and moved back toward the stadium wall.  
  
I guess close combat isn't going to work. She thought, and noted that Tonetero easily slapped aside her kunai with his thorns, even though the attacks were well thrown. Simple ranged attacks are useless as well, so I shouldn't bother with Spark Stars except as a defense. Well, maybe as a distraction. Let's see if you can block attacks from all sides monster.  
  
"Surely that isn't all you have to use?" Tonetero mocked. "You beat the other Cloud ninja so easily I thought you might at least be as useless as Kei. Or are you even more pathetic than she is?"  
  
Only fools talk while they fight! "Lightning Element: Multiple Spark Star no Jutsu!" Shiren launched the horde of weapons into the air, and following her hands seals they assembled into the arching lightning stars, six shuriken centered around a kunai, and four of these all told, directed by her commands. They streaked in at Tonetero.  
  
"Useless!" He spat, and thorns flew outward in a circling wall all about him.  
  
Sparking stars impacted the thorns, and flames burst out over the examination field from the encounter, but kunai and shuriken flew aside to slam into the ground as Tonetero blocked all the missiles lazily. His thorns burrowed into the ground before coming back to hide in his body, extinguished. His expression showed a great boredom and disappointment.  
  
Idiot! That was a ruse! Shiren decided, as she ran right, forming the hand seals. They're all around you now. She reached into her shuriken pouch and pulled out two little stars, and threw them.  
  
"What are you aiming at lightning girl?" Tonetero laughed, seeing that the weapons were not even coming near him.  
  
Then they struck two of the kunai that lay buried in the dirt from the last attack. "Lightning Element: Charged Spark Missiles!" A spark ignited when those shuriken struck kunai, and it leapt about, striking all the fallen missiles, and propelling every last one into the air.  
  
Better than before, she lifted them all. Neji watched, impressed by Shiren's growth, and hoping that Tonetero could not block that array of missiles coming from all sides now.  
  
The Grass ninja was not without a few moves of his own though. "Thorn Rain!" He formed a hand seal and the thorns he had for hair shot off his head and arched back down, forming a rain of thorns that drove the weapons to the ground. "You ruined my hair." He glared balefully at Shiren, his face looking even more unnatural from the perfect pink skin that covered the top of his head. "I'll kill you!"  
  
This is bad! Shiren reacted quickly. I have to dodge!  
  
"Thorn Lash!" The voice of Tonetero was a raw scream, as a stream of thorns cascaded into a hellish whip and snapped at Shiren. She rolled back, tumbling free with swiftness, but those thorns moved faster than anyone could roll, and she was lifted off the ground and slash over the side, to come rolling to a stop some distance away.  
  
Shiren! Neji cringed silently. Get up, please, it shouldn't end here.  
  
Shiren, lying on the ground, paused only a moment before rolling right and coming to her knees. "Ouch." She cringed. That really stings, and my side is bleeding. I have to find a way to get past his guard; I can't take more punishment like that. She paused for thought a moment.  
  
"Oh, so you can still fight?" Tonetero laughed, seemingly more composed. "Maybe you're better than Kei after all, even if you're still worthless."  
  
All my attacks have been dispersed, but Kei used single strong attacks and failed to penetrate as well, so that won't work. As she latched onto a possibility Shiren drew a shuriken out in her right hand, and took it in a strange hold.  
  
That motion, Xi looked down at Shiren intently. When did she learn that jutsu? Can she use it repeatedly?  
  
Shiren gathered her chakra as Tonetero looked on, ready for her to try anything. "Lightning Shuriken!"  
  
The shuriken flew from Shiren's hand, covered in chakra that formed into glowing blue charge. She did not leave the attack alone, but followed it with another, and another, one after another the shuriken came, a steady stream of missiles.  
  
It could work, it could work, Neji hoped desperately, seeing Shiren's strategy. You're great Shiren, to throw so many imbued missiles one after another like that without making a mistake.  
  
Tonetero put up a hand and thorns streaked out to meet the shuriken. The first thorn hit the first missile...  
  
An explosion shook the ground and kicked up dust, but another explosion followed immediately afterward, as one after another the lighting shuriken detonated their blasts of charge against the screen of thorns.  
  
Come on, go through, go through damn it! Shiren gritted her teeth, ten shuriken, eleven, twelve, thirteen, and then... I'm out! Damn! Go through, please, go through!  
  
Thirteen explosions split the stadium with great outbursts of voltage, enough to raise hairs on necks in the highest rows of the stands, and make the stadium reek of ozone. The dust spun about wildly in disrupted and shattered air currents, concealing both combatants from the crowd.  
  
"Byakugan!" Neji could not wait, but stared through the dust, searching for Shiren and her foe. High above him Xi called upon the dragon's eyes for the same purpose. They could not wait.  
  
Therefore, the two dragon ninja knew even before Shiren, the outcome.  
  
Tonetero stood unscathed in the middle of the stadium. "Really," He said condescendingly to Shiren as the dust clears. "You think a few blasts will break my screen of thorns? They heal constantly and respond to my very will. And now what can you do? You used all your missiles up in that last barrage. Will you come here and let me poke you? Or will you be a coward and give up?"  
  
Shiren...Neji gripped the iron rail hard enough to scour it slightly from chakra that leaked out.  
  
I can't give up, I won't! Shiren resolved. I will not lose to you, you monster! But how can I get through? She almost despaired. There's no way to penetrate a guard that responds faster than I can possibly move!  
  
"Perhaps you need some motivation." Tonetero laughed. "Thorn Lash!" The stream of thorns came in from high above this time, and though Shiren raised her arms to block in struck her full on.  
  
"Gaah!" Shiren grunted as the impact took her, slamming her to the ground. Blood seeped out from scores of slashes on her arms and legs; her clothes were ripped and tattered, but she stood up again. I'm not done yet! She determined. There must be a way. I have to find it! I promised her that I would prove we are not the weaker ones. She held that thought for a moment. I promised myself as well, that I would prove I have the strength to stand beside you Neji, to be a dragon ninja. Her eyes clouded with tears. I will keep that promise; I will be a dragon ninja! Suddenly those words struck Shiren. A dragon ninja...  
  
Tonetero saw the movement. "Oh, so you have one last trick?"  
  
"Not a trick." Shiren said to him, her voice like iron. "And I didn't use up all my weapons." She gave him a horrifying grin, one that for a second wiped the cruel smile off Tonetero's face, for he saw Shiren's eyes, and they promised death.  
  
Her right hand whipped down; to the low kunai holster she wore, which contained the weapons she never drew upon. She flicked her wrist and both kunai flew into the air. They came down easily, falling one into each hand, as Shiren shifted her right leg forward, her stance collapsing down lower, compacted with gathered energy. The kunai in her right hand held out and pointed upwards, the one in her left held in and pointed down.  
  
That stance is...Neji and Xi shared the same thought. Xi looked on in silence in that instant, and from the corner of his eye saw the Raikage stand up and look down to the field with a shocked expression. Neji simply looked down at Shiren, and saw the chakra flowing through her veins. Shiren, I believe in your strength for this!  
  
Now! One chance! Shiren launched herself forward. "Hidden Cloud Style: Thunder and Lightning Strike!"  
  
Full tilt she ran, feeling the chakra move within, and at the moment she launched herself upward, pressing first one way and then the other, her movements so fast they were all but impossible to follow, and Tonetero's head swerved around searching, as the move executed.  
  
"From above!" Thorns dashed there in a solid swarm, to block the kunai coming down.  
  
A thunderclap shook the stadium as the kunai met the thorns, and the air seemed to crack above Tonetero's head. "Ha! Stopped you!"  
  
Those were the last words Tonetero spoke as the lightning swift pivot brought Shiren down so her right arm plunged the kunai into his chest and through his heart. Tonetero's eyes went dark and his body collapsed to the ground, thorns falling like heavy rain all around.  
  
Acade was there in an instant, but it only took one look at Tonetero's body. "You killed him." The words were sad and empty.  
  
A kunai streaked in from high above, only to be deflected away from Shiren mere feet from her back. The Raikage stood there on the examination field, his sword drawn even in his blue-bordered Kage robes and hat. "I will ask the head ninja of Grass if she wishes to start a war over this matter." He said coldly, his voice that of one used to giving battlefield commands, and heard clearly throughout the stadium.  
  
A scowling female ninja in the garb of Hidden Grass glared down from above at Raikage, a kunai held bare in her hand. She did not move.  
  
"I would ask my esteemed colleagues from the other hidden villages to sit down and put their weapons away." Came the gravelly voice of Tsuchikage, the old man stood up on the high dais. "The next person to draw a weapon or attack another in this stadium other than the exam candidates will not be spared the full justice of Hidden Stone. This exam is not without the possibility of death, and it must be accepted when it comes. Senirai Shiren of Hidden Cloud has won this match and will compete in the finals. Get her wounds treated and make ready for the next match. Examiner! See to it!"  
  
"Yes, Tsuchikage-sama!" Acade answered and saluted. He motioned for the medical team to come forward.  
  
For Shiren, the win came with great surprise. So, it worked. She thought. I was finally able to use that move. Will it be enough? She wondered.  
  
Before she allowed the medics to take her, however, Shiren looked up at the stands. There Neji stood, watching. He smiled down at her, congratulating her without words. And tiredly, but feeling warmth within, she returned his smile. Thank you, Neji. 


	28. Sight in Stone

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: First, my sincere apologies on taking so long to get this chapter out, I've been busy with end of the semester school work and other things, so it's taken a while. However, the next couple chapters should come much more rapidly. So this chapter is Neji's big fight, against the guy who beat Gosain, its pretty interesting. This is also the second to last fight of the exam, so after this chapter we can finally move on to more interesting things (though I have been trying to insert bits of plotline as this goes).  
  
Again, thanks to all the reviewers, and apologies for taking a while with this chapter.  
  
Sight in Stone  
  
Neji strode down to the field slowly, trying to maintain his composure. The stone ninja Tsukabe Ota walked beside him, matching him stride for stride in spite of Neji's slightly greater height. There was only one moment when they said anything to acknowledge each other. At the base of the steps, before they entered again into the open stadium, Ota turned to Neji. "Now that the Grass ninja is eliminated we can conduct this as it was intended." He said without inflection or any other marks to show his feeling.  
  
"Ah." Was all that Neji said in reply.  
  
They entered onto the field into a scene of confusion. Shiren was walking toward the stairs with a team of medics carrying bandages. A second group of medics, led by Acade, carried the body of Tonetero on a stretcher. They kept their eyes off the grim corpse, still filled with thorns.  
  
Neji passed by Shiren, and he stopped for a moment. For a long instant they just looked at each other, and without saying anything the sentiments were exchanged, gratitude, confidence, and support. Neji broke the silence when that was done. "You are not hurt too much I hope?"  
  
"With a little help from these medics I'll be all set for the finals." She replied with a soft smile. "Don't worry, I'll still be able to watch."  
  
"Ah." Neji muttered. "Thanks."  
  
Then they passed by each other, Shiren going back up the stands, and Neji out into the stadium grounds. For a single second a thought crossed Neji's mind. If I win, then I will face Shiren in the final match. He pushed that uncertain thought away immediately after it arrived. I will focus on this match first, that is more important. Indeed, Ota stood ready in position.  
  
With a steady gait Neji walked over and took his position opposite the stone ninja, measuring him. He recalled the fight versus Gosain, the armor and the power behind the fists, and the weakness to that stone armor. Contact with the ground. It is his weakness, but how can I make use of it? Tsukabe Ota looked at him in turn, but Neji knew the older ninja had neither his sight nor a serious fight to go off for determination of his strength. He has not seen the true extent of my abilities, but I am certain he has the strength to provoke them.  
  
They watched each other while they waited for Acade to return, the Examiner was caught in a violent discussion with several Grass ninja up in the waiting room, and seemed preoccupied. The crowd grew restless.  
  
Above all this Xi looked on, watching Neji. It was finally the turn for his pupil to face a serious challenge. This stone ninja will not be brushed by so quickly as the others. This opponent will be as difficult as someone like Gosain, and he has that armor, a defense that is almost designed to thwart a method like the Jyouken style. Your attacks cannot penetrate that armor. Xi was not certain he could see a solution for Neji. Dragon techniques could easily rip apart that defense, a single rend would shred this stone ninja just like any other, but I have forbidden it. I expect you will hold to that prohibition Neji, but if you do, how will you win? No Hyuuga technique will break that armor.  
  
As Acade returned to the field Neji found himself considering those same things. He had many ideas, but he had no way of knowing just how they would work without seeing the armor up close. I will have to wait until he calls upon it to formulate a strategy. Damn.  
  
Acade walked between the two ninja. "Now." He spoke quietly to the two of them, so that the crowd couldn't hear. "I would hope that you two refrain from any incidents like there were in the last match. We don't need any more injuries in this exam. It's been ridden by enough trouble as it is. Understand?"  
  
They both nodded.  
  
"Good." Acade replied tersely. He stood back simply, face still grim, and waited for the crowd to quiet. With an offhand glance at the far off Kage's the examiner raised his hand high. "The second match of the semi-finals: Tsukabe Ota of Hidden Stone versus Draci Neji of Hidden Leaf!"  
  
"Begin!"  
  
The examiner was out of the way instantly, and Neji's match had begun.  
  
"Byakugan!" He called on the power of his eyes first; as Ota brought forth the same armor that he had fought with against Gosain. Looking at that armor Neji found he had few options. It is not a construction of chakra, he has actually brought stone over the entirety of his body, there is no way to force it aside, and I doubt even my strongest strike would be felt through armor that thick. However, Neji noted that the armor restricted Ota's movements. How will he attack me? Unlike Gosain I have no weapons to seize to bring me close, and even in close combat I could block his moves.  
  
So Neji simply stood and waited, watching for Ota to make the first move. At the least he cannot maintain that armor forever, it must cost chakra to hold himself up under the weight. It would be strange to simply wait him out, but time plays in my favor, not his.  
  
Unfortunately for Neji, Ota was not about to oblige him. "If you will not attack, then I will." He spoke, words crumpled and grinding beneath that stony armor. His hands moved slowly and deliberately, forming seals. Neji looked at him, seeing the seals form, watching chakra gather. He did not recognize the technique, could not see what Ota planned to use his energy for.  
  
It was his eyes that saved him.  
  
"Earth Element: Open Jaws of the Mountainside!" Came the call of Ota's jutsu, a powerful and deadly attack that came from a completely unexpected direction. Below.  
  
The earth opened beneath Neji, reaching outward like some great mouth had been rent in the ground that wished to swallow him up completely. The ground heaved and yawed, and the loud cracking sound split the air.  
  
Yet Neji had seen, his Byakugan reached all about him, even to the bottom of his feet, and having learned that vision he always watched in all directions. He could not be so easily surprised. So as the ground split open beneath his feet Neji leaped high, flipping through the air to come around behind Ota, and spinning rapidly to face the ninja's back.  
  
The stone ninja, confused, tried to turn and follow his opponent's move, but his speed was limited by the stony armor. Twin kunai thumped solidly into that armor then, propelled strongly, sinking deep, but not penetrating. Damn! Neji thought. Well, it's to be expected, there's no easy way through. I have to separate him from the ground somehow.  
  
"You almost had me," Ota said, turning. He gave Neji a curious look. "I was wide open, and you threw kunai. You must have known that wouldn't work, why do that?" He asked, seeming quite perplexed. "Surely you have an attack that could break through."  
  
I do, Neji thought without answering, but it would kill you, and I have said I will not do that. Taijutsu and dragon jutsu, those are my only techniques, and all the dragon jutsu kill, I have no other technique that can penetrate that skin of stone.  
  
"Well, if you will not attack then I will!" Ota roared with energy and his hands slashed into crude seals. "Mountain Burst no jutsu!"  
  
The ground exploded beneath Neji, an attack much faster than the maw that had been used before, one that could not be easily dodged.  
  
"Kaiten!" Neji began the whirl and let the force of the blasting stone carry him up and forward, propelling him toward Ota. The stone ninja is distracted, holding his seal, perhaps if I strike now...  
  
The whirling dragon ninja slammed into the armor of stone, the tremendous force of Kaiten detonating against that stone skin, and driving Ota back, and off balance. He fell, dropping slowly, and Neji watched, hoping for separation from the ground.  
  
It came close, but Ota was skilled, he moved knowingly when struck, falling backwards, but his heels held firm to the ground, and he did not separate from it. So when he slammed to the soil his stone armor remained intact.  
  
Neji, reaching down in search of an opening, was caught off guard, and so he could only scramble to block when Ota's fist flashed up with great speed to counterattack.  
  
The blow slammed hard against Neji's arms, and he coughed in pain as he flew high into the air. Yet Neji retained his focus, and despite the pain he controlled his flight and landed some distance away, to face the standing Ota again. Ouch, that is a truly strong blow. I can't take many of those, but I need to find a way to break through that armor. How? How?  
  
There was no respite, Ota stood facing Neji and blasted the earth beneath him again, only to watch the dragon ninja spin aside. He repeated this a second time, and then a third, but while dirt blasted about the stadium and the ground shook and moaned in agony he could not strike his opponent, who guided by his eyes could predict the potent attack.  
  
Breathing hard Neji faced Ota, covered in dirt and scratches, feeling the bruises begin to form on his arms. There has to be a way, I need to break through, once I do that I can defeat him. I need a way!  
  
"You're good." Ota grunted. "But you can't keep dodging forever. If you can't defeat my armor you might as well give up. Fighting the ground of the mountains is not easy."  
  
"I won't give up." Neji barked. There has to be a way, he tried to think on it, searching for an answer, but his mind moved immediately to focus on the ground beneath him, leaping ahead to Ota's next attack. The ground now bent and blasted from the hard fighting it had seen all day long. The ground, broken...  
  
Suddenly Neji had found the way.  
  
His hands flashed down to his thighs, to where the nekode rested, sharp and keen, undrawn thus far this day. He grabbed them free of their slots, slipping his hands into the perfectly fitting weapons, and then bringing them up to a ready position, the position that presaged Rend.  
  
What are you doing Neji? Xi looked down in anger and dissapointment. Are you going to break your word and defy me? I won't allow that, you had better be able to show control during an exam, or you never will on the battlefield as a chuunin. This surprised Xi, and he felt shocked and disturbed, having believed he knew Neji better than this. His hands slipped to their own nekode, recognizing that he would be forced to do something terrible if Neji broke his word here.  
  
Ota's eyes narrowed beneath their glaze of stone, but he brought his hand up in the sealing pattern, as before, believing nothing had changed. "Mountain Burst no jutsu!"  
  
The ground exploded beneath Neji, but he was already rolling forward, a tight spiral upon the ground he traced, and then planted his feet and launched himself up, standing only a few feet from Ota, less than arm's reach away.  
  
Before the stone ninja could recover and strike Neji's hands dropped down, and he felt and watched the chakra move in his hands, controlling it ever so perfectly, forming blades sharper than steel, stone, or even Tonetero's grassy blades. The visceral blue glow of chakra emerged beneath the nekode.  
  
Eyes throughout the stadium closed in at this moment.  
  
Neji plunged his hands into the dirt. "Explosive Rend!"  
  
Down and cross, and then back up, the same pattern that could destroy a human form traced sharp lines in the dirt, deep cuts that could have shorn through the hardest stone, but they did not stop with simple cuts.  
  
The Byakugan possessed Neji's eyes, and through that all revealing white gaze he saw the lines, the openings, and he channeled his chakra into them, more and more and more, until they swelled and bent, and then, in a chain reaction of more stress than any object could withstand, even this portion of the mountain's earth, they burst.  
  
Ground blasted apart in front of Neji, streaking apart as if smashed by the club of a giant, a great crack rent open then, slashing forward and sounding of the loudest thunder to ever sweep across the sky. Then Tsukabe Ota was in midair, the ground beneath him gone.  
  
The armor fell away almost instantly, and Neji could see it crumble as the connections that held it to his body vanished, and so he could see exactly when the opening to strike came. He hurled aside the nekode and leaped at Ota, striking before other ninja had done anything more than began to fall.  
  
"Hakke Rokujyu Yonshou!" Neji's hands came in at Ota, two fingers on each extended, and the attack began. Two strikes, four strikes, eight strikes, sixteen strikes, thirty-two strikes, and finally sixty-four strikes, as he slammed chakra into every tenkentsu in his opponent's body, smashing them closed and blocking all chakra flow. Ota slammed to the dirt meters beyond the great crack Neji had opened, and Neji came down above him, ripping out a kunai and holding over his opponent's neck.  
  
The two ninja were breathing in long gasps, but Ota didn't move so much as an inch, and he seemed unable to find the strength to say anything.  
  
Acade was there then, looking down at the two. He took only a moment's examination, and whipped the disappointment from his eyes, before raising his hand. "Winner: Draci Neji!"  
  
So, you win Neji. Xi thought from above, and prove yourself more creative than even I credited you with. My own fault, to forget that move. Xi was glad though, that Neji had not done as he expected, had not broken the prohibition against killing. Though he wondered. He has used a dragon jutsu in a way that does not kill. Inovative to be sure, but it will drive him even further from what I have been trying to teach him. This exam has provided complications that were not needed. Looking ahead Xi suspected that the complications were just begun. There's still one match left.  
  
Examiner Acade stood in the center of the exam stadium. "We will pause now before the final match, to insure that both fighters are in their best form. The final match will be Draci Neji, representing Hidden Leaf, and Senirai Shiren, representing Hidden Cloud!"  
  
Hearing the examiner's words Neji's head jerked around, and he found himself recalling that yes, he would face Shiren next. He had avoided thinking about it during the fight, but now he was forced to recognize that. So, the two of us will meet in another mock battle, for the first time to test our full abilities since that day I met you in Konoha. Neji found a strange feeling within, one that upset the equilibrium of his composure. I need to speak to Shiren, he realized with desperate urgency. I need to speak with her before we begin this match. There was something that had to be said. 


	29. Dance of the Ninja

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Hah! I have a faster update this time, and an important chapter too. The final fight of the chuunin exam, and then its on to different things once more, things that aren't so hideously bogged down. I think this chapter is a good one, and I put a good deal of effort into it. Certainly this is an important chapter.  
  
Thanks to the reviewers, apparently FF.net dislikes this story and I was not aware of it. If someone could describe the problem I'll see if something can be done about it.  
  
Some answers to questions/comments: SilverKnight7: This story will go until the conclusion of the events that make up Xi's past, most importantly what happened in Lightning eight years ago. There have been allusions to a certain 'she' at points previous, and I'll let slip that there very important to the overall scheme of things. Neji technically already a dragon ninja, he will remain Xi's student until he masters all of the jutsus.  
  
Zsych: Mock battle, nah, what's coming is rather more serious, the chapter hopefully explains itself though.  
  
Hattuteline: About Ota's armor, its not a chakra construction, its literally plates of stone that conform to his body, kind of like Gaara's armor of sand but ten times as solid. Neji couldn't take it off with chakra cause he's only using chakra from underneath it to allow him to lift the weight. Rend, however, can cut through anything, even steel bars, it could slice through the armor and the blades would penetrate directly into flesh, like taking a diamond cutter to plate mail. It cannot cut the armor off though, just through it.  
  
Dance of the Ninja  
  
The wind whipped across the face of Draci Xi, as he stood at the railing of the exam stadium in Hidden Stone, his eyes dry and focused. There he watched his pupil, Neji, be escorted off the field by the stone medics, to be taken away from view so that his wounds would be healed and prepared for the finals. The dragon ninja's thoughts were dark, and he found that he wished the battles of the day were done. Shiren and Neji, to fight in the next match. Unfortunate.  
  
It was a pointless match, Xi knew that, and he saw it reflected in the eyes of the on looking Kage's. The strengths of the villages had already been measured, the choices made. These two who would fight in the finals were both from Xi's team. Regardless of whomever wins, the honor will be mine, not Cloud's or Leaf's. This match will influence no ones' decision on who shall become a chuunin; at least, I suspect such decisions have already been made.  
  
So, Xi wished the match would not occur, but knowing that it must prepared to watch it seriously. He suspected Neji would win; of course, Shiren had never beaten him before, but there was danger in the match all the same. Xi recognized the relationship that grew between the two ninja; he was not blind to such things. What can this fight mean for them? They are both soon to be my students. It is strange, two that I saved, perhaps the only two I ever saved, have come back to learn from me, to let me teach them to kill. Xi remembered Neji's somber face when he lay dying in the forest outside Konoha, the simple acceptance of death he had seen there. He remembered the young girl who had looked up at the dead lightning ninja and the masked man who had put the kunai through that bloody neck without fear, unflinching against the chaos. Xi's right hand fell to the mask that hung suspended from his belt. One who was saved by the Xi of lightning, and one who has been saved by the Xi of no village, these are my students. The cold thought had Xi staring off in the distance, to the high mountains of ice, wondering.  
  
"What a contemplative look for a dragon ninja." A voice whispered from Xi's left. "Something has you out of sorts perhaps?" The remark was not snide, but given seriously, though Xi did not find it either amusing or appropriate.  
  
"Be careful with your words, Dar." Xi replied. "Someone might not appreciate them."  
  
"Apologies then." Dar remonstrated.  
  
"I thought you were going to protect that young grass ninja?" Xi raised an eyebrow. "Have you abandoned that task?"  
  
"Well, since your student removed that little threat from the list I thought I should at least watch the final match. It looks to be very interesting, the young dragon ninja versus the lady of lightning who defeated the monster of grass." Dar cracked a stony smile.  
  
"You are not disappointed Tsukabe Ota lost?" Xi wondered, noting that most of the Stone ninja had expressed great disappointment over that.  
  
"They'll make him a chuunin anyway." Dar said. "Besides, I don't care, this village isn't my home, just where I lay my head to rest. My life is-"Dar stopped speaking suddenly, sensing that he was about to say too much.  
  
The sword, your life is the sword, Xi filled in the words. "We all have our burdens." He said, having the courtesy not to mention anything more.  
  
"You know, it is quite rare for members of the same team to fight in the finals." Dar said, changing the subject. "They try to structure the tournament so that it doesn't happen."  
  
"That is so no country appears truly dominant, it is an artifice." Xi replied.  
  
"Yes, but this is rather unusual isn't it, since the team in question represents two different countries." Dar remarked. "And one of those the only leaf entry in the exam."  
  
"A boon for the leaf that." Xi remarked. "But Cloud and the Leaf have a treaty, having a mixed team is not impossible. There was a mixed Stone and Waterfall team three years ago in Konoha, as I recall."  
  
"Yes, but how will your team handle fighting itself?" Dar asked bluntly.  
  
"We shall see, stone ninja." Was the only response Xi gave.  
  
Dar's question was the same one plaguing Neji's mind at that very moment, as he sat in a couch next to Shiren while the medics treated them both. Shiren's injuries were far more severe, but the power of medical jutsus was amazing. Neji watched as cuts simply vanished, and bruises faded to nothing before his eyes. Yet he recognized that it was all useless in the face of death, of the lethal techniques he knew, and even that Shiren knew. No medical ninja can save those who face a dragon ninja and lose.  
  
All this was secondary to Neji though, as he lay with Shiren near him, but the cold and impersonal medics making any conversation essentially impossible. Instead he ran through his mind what he should say to her, how he might address the fact that they had to fight, but he could find no answers. What do I say? I cannot lie, but what is the truth? That I don't want to fight her? No, Neji recognized that he was willing to fight Shiren, in fact he wished to see the full extent of her new abilities from up close, and measure them against himself, but there was something deeper, something he could not quite identify. His puzzled over it, ignoring the medics until, suddenly, they were finished.  
  
"Rest for a moment, the match will begin shortly." One of the stone medics said before leaving the room, and leaving Shiren and Neji alone.  
  
Neji turned toward Shiren almost instantly, but he found he had no words, and so he was simply staring.  
  
Shiren broke the silence. "Neji, don't worry. I know you'll beat me." She said the words happily, with a smile on her face, and not a false one. "I may have improved, but I can't match your skills. Still, we should do everyone the honor of putting on a good show."  
  
The words shocked Neji, but the also wiped the uncertainty from his mind. Shiren had already accepted that this match was coming, and that they were not evenly matched. She has eliminated the competitive element, Neji recognized, and he saw that this was what he had wished himself, that they should fight simply as friends, and not oppose each other. "I would not say that the conclusion is that forgone." Neji answered. "You were most impressive against your opponent."  
  
"I master one tricky technique that I've been trying to learn for years, while you make the ground explode." Shiren laughed softly. "Really, Neji, you have a talent I think it's almost impossible to match, but thanks for the complement."  
  
"We'll see." He answered. "It will hopefully impress those onlookers."  
  
"Heh." Shiren laughed softly again. "With any luck we can impress Xi and those old Kages."  
  
"Shiren, I think you've already impressed the Raikage." Neji returned the smile, and stood up slowly, testing the strength in his limbs.  
  
Standing next to him Shiren loosened her limbs up as well, and carefully stowed a grand supply of weaponry that the Stone medics had left next to her couch. "Not my own," She mumbled. "But these mountain ninja know good workmanship."  
  
Neji fixed the bandages that wrapped about his left arm, which the stone medics had removed, his own version of the ritual Shiren had just gone through with her weapons. With that done, they were both ready.  
  
The two teammates stepped out into the hall.  
  
Acade was waiting for them. "You are ready?" He asked simply.  
  
The pair nodded.  
  
"Good. Let's go." Acade guided them back through the passages of the exam stadium, back to the waiting room and down the long steps. When they reached the bottom and steeped out into the late afternoon sunset the crowd roared, cheering the competitors in the final match.  
  
Standing there Neji was conscious of what his position meant. To be in the finals, it was not just to be in the final stage, just one of the best the villages had to offer, but the very best, the one who had struck down the best of other villages, who had fought through successive matches against strong opponents battle tested by the mountain snows, and emerged victorious. That was what it meant to stand here, to be a representation of country, team, and of all ninja. It was a heady feeling, but in some ways it made Neji uneasy. I am a Leaf ninja, but my teammates are from a different villages, as is my sensei, I am a Hyuuga, and I am a dragon ninja. On this field whom do I represent?  
  
Looking up to the stands Neji saw the seated Kages, the leaders of the Hidden Villages, turning his head he saw Draci Xi, standing with a stone ninja he did not recognize, and then all the gathered ninja from many villages. Looking at them Neji did not think it was to any such groups, be they from Leaf or Cloud, which he belonged to. He turned his head and looked at Shiren, walking next to him. I represent my team, and myself. He decided.  
  
Acade let the crowd have their moment, and then he motioned Shiren and Neji into place. He turned to the crowd and spoke. "The final match, to decide the victor of this tournament and conclude this chuunin exam of Hidden Stone, shall be Draci Neji of Hidden Leaf versus Senirai Shiren of Hidden Cloud. Both have faced many challenges and defeated many opponents to reach this point. Now they stand as the best of the ninja youth."  
  
The crowd roared again, and Acade waited until they quieted before turning back to Neji and Shiren. He met the eyes of each in turn, checking their readiness. When he saw that both ninja were prepared he raised his right arm as before.  
  
"Begin!"  
  
To Neji the arm seemed to fall in slow motion as the Byakugan came over his eyes almost without thought, widening his vision to encompass an almost complete sphere about his body, an awareness that could not be matched. He felt and saw the chakra within him, and within Shiren, two sets of vessels that were remarkably similar, with chakra flowing not randomly, but only as directed, controlled and ready to be molded to the wills of the ninja who would now call upon their bodies' power.  
  
Acade's arm reached the bottom of its arc and the stone ninja jumped away, clearly the field of distractions. It was now only Neji and Shiren.  
  
Shiren's right hand slashed through the air, and suddenly three shuriken scourged a path toward Neji, ready to take away his eyes, but Neji had seen the move, and had already rolled forward, coming up with nekode in hand.  
  
The metal climbing tools rang clearly and loud when they met the kunai in Shiren's hands, each strike parried, and then again and again, as strike followed strike, repeatedly, arms twisting and seeking, feet sliding along the ground, looking for any opening.  
  
Suddenly Neji found one, and his right hand came in from below.  
  
Shiren sprung back, and a spray of shuriken forced him to block, disrupting the countermove, and so they were matched, no damage inflicted.  
  
Neji and Shiren took a breath in unison, and they clashed once more.  
  
Draci Xi watched from above, noting each and every motion of the two competitors, every meeting of kunai and nekode. Neji's eyes gave him and edge, but Shiren's ability to attack from any range countered it, set them equal as they came together again and again.  
  
Many in the crowd looked at the fight in surprise, and disappointment. They had expected powerful jutsu to fly about, lightning and the spinning moves of the Hyuuga, not this strange match of taijutsu.  
  
The truly skilled in the crowd understood why these moves were not used, and looked on in awe as Neji and Shiren spun and swirled, leaping over ground and air, and the constant sound of metal on metal that announced the parry of technique to technique. Kataishi Dar gripped the rail next to Xi with his left hand, while his right gripped his sword, and his grip on that blade shifted constantly, as if imaging himself in the midst of this battle. The Raikage stood tall, his gaze fixated on the center of the stadium, unblinking. Likewise Tsuchikage, the old man's staff now forgotten as he stood with his robes whipping in the wind to watch the display.  
  
To use jutsu is pointless for these two teammates. They know the techniques; they know the counters or the way to dodge. It would only be a waste of energy and precious seconds. It is speed, strength and endurance that matter now, a single mistake will spell defeat in a battle this highly charged, with Neji's sight and Shiren's accuracy. The mind reasoned this as it saw the display, wondering who would prove the victor.  
  
Neji grunted as Shiren's kunai impacted his nekode again, and he deflected a shuriken behind his back with his left hand, then jumped and spun, landing behind her, weapons coming forward only to be spun aside by a kunai with a confounding string attached. He cut the string, but was forced to dodge another flurry of quick Jinnen strikes, with littered obstacles all about, confusing his footwork. There was no thought now, simply instinct and reaction, the haze of red swallowed about the eyes from the force of fighting so hard, and it was an effort to see through it. Sweat seeped out from every pore and each breath burned with raw pain. The rest of the world had faded, and only two imperatives remained, that of block and strike, block and strike. Deflect the incoming kunai and slash back with sharp nekode, or shuriken. The ring of metal on metal denoted that the fight would go on.  
  
High above, Xi's mind raced, tracing the fight, tracing the pattern, and looking for the overall conclusion. They are both good, the skill is tremendous, all the perfect control of a dragon ninja, every move with no loss, uninhibited by the weakness of the body or its normal motions, instead trained to react with perfect efficiency to any strike from any angle, and to always strike again, with suddenness and severity. It would be the first mistake the brought the winner, the first strike to penetrate those shimmering halos of metal. Xi thought, and he recognized something. Neji does not make mistakes.  
  
So it was, as they spun about in the open stadium Neji suddenly leapt up into the sky to Shiren's left, she turned to block, but forgot the things that had been pushed so far outside awareness in the focus on move and countermove, that she was looking up and into the west.  
  
The red glare of the sun slashed across Shiren's face, and so, for the shortest of moments but for an eternity in the context of that fight, she closed her eyes.  
  
The nekode ripped across her hands, slashing loose the kunai, and then striking hard into her side, slamming her backward in that moment when vision vanished.  
  
The reaction came equally fast.  
  
With the sudden distance imparted by the blow Shiren filled the air between her and Neji with six weapons, thrown into the shape of a star. Her hands flashed and lighting arced between them.  
  
Neji spun aside and to the ground, dodging under the spark star with ease, but the fight had suddenly changed. A moment of space had been achieved by his act of damaging his opponent. With hazy vision he saw Shiren take the next logical step.  
  
The mind moved on instinct, without conscious thought, and the hands followed commands that had no time to be processed or considered, there was only reaction as Shiren's right hand reached down into the low kunai holster on her leg and flipped the weapons into the air. The parity of battle had been lost, so the reaction was simple, strike now with everything that remains.  
  
Neji reacted as well, and stood with legs spread, arms at the ready, as Shiren sucked in air and took the first step forward. "Hidden Cloud Style: Thunder and Lightning Strike!" The words ripped free from Shiren's mouth with her exhalation as her feet dug into the churned dirt and chakra slammed through the channels of her limbs to do its deadly purpose.  
  
Shiren's steps carried her forward in that beaten earth, even as chakra flowed into Neji as well. His mind reacted the same way, and seized on the one weapon it had to counter this move that blew past any defense, a move that struck aside any attack and back to slash apart the attacker at the same moment.  
  
The clawing whirlwind.  
  
Eyes slammed out of focus on the fight as the observers realized what had happened, but they were too late, and too far. Even as Xi's hands propelled him up over the railing, and the Raikage's blade pulled free of its scabbard, they knew they were far too late, even Acade's hand hung useless as it pulled forth a kunai.  
  
Shiren's feet left the soil in the first of the slashing arcs that brought thunder and lightning to its point of impact, and Neji felt the chakra move in his limbs, directed to every pore, calling forth images of blades. Yet for a moment he could think, as his eyes followed Shiren through the air there was a second of pause, and in that instant he saw the impact of his move, of the body destroyed by a thousand knives, the body of Ryukin covered in blood, and the words of Draci Xi rang out again in his mind: "You shall not kill anyone in this exam!"  
  
Draci Neji's eyes snapped wide open as a streaking thought clawed through the haze of battle that gripped his brain and he realized what was happening. He saw the body of Ryukin in his mind's eye, only it was not Ryukin, it was Shiren, and he realized what he had been about to do.  
  
There was no time for more then, as Shiren switched directions, and came on, the sharp glint of her kunai visible in the red light of the setting sun. There was nowhere to dodge, and no way to raise a defense to block that attack. Thunder and lightning were going to strike him.  
  
So Neji did some he had never done before. His right hand shot up, and in a clear voice he shouted. "I forfeit!"  
  
The words traveled throughout the stadium, and would hang strangely on the faces and in the minds of all those who observed, but it was not to them that Neji looked, but straight forward, into the eyes of Senirai Shiren.  
  
As his own had done Shiren's eyes snapped wide, and a look of horror splayed across her face, but there was nothing she could do more than that. Her kunai came in from above and slashed down, and Neji had raised no defense. The move, having a life of its own, could not be stopped.  
  
Sharp metal bit down into Neji, taking him cleanly in the upper chest, below the collarbone. The strike struck with the explosive power of thunder, and the pain was like nothing Neji had ever felt before, but he clenched his teeth and refused to scream. The blow drove him to the ground hard.  
  
The fight was over.  
  
Shiren was next to Neji instantly, pressing her hands to the wound, tears streaming from her eyes as blood flowed over them. "Neji," She barely managed the words at first. "Neji, I'm so sorry!" It was almost a scream. "I never, ever, ever meant to..." She stopped again, running out of breath. "Please, please, say something, don't just...don't please, Neji." It was a whisper.  
  
The pain made Neji want to scream, as he never had before, a brutal hole in him, agony like he had not felt even as Ryukin burned him. The Byakugan was gone from his vision, and he saw the world normally, though he found that he was crying as well. It was hard, but he forced himself not to scream, inside he took in a shallow breath and spoke. "Damn...that's a hard...hit." He repeated the same words Shiren had said when he defeated her, what now seemed so long ago, on the library rooftop in Konoha.  
  
Tears streaming down her face and blood covering her hands, Shiren smiled, a full and truly open smile that enveloped her whole face. "Then I'll never do it again, ever." Shiren said, putting her bloody hands, thick with Neji's blood and her own from the cuts he had inflicted earlier, around his right hand.  
  
"Right...never again...ever." Neji said, and he found himself smiling, despite the pain inside. He wanted to say more, but he couldn't find the strength.  
  
Shiren took the bandages from his left arm and wrapped it around the kunai embedded in his chest, and held it there until the medics came. The lifted Neji and put him on a stretcher, and he found his strength fading, and his eyes fluttered, and then closed in sleep, but he held the image of Shiren in his mind, her hands over his own, as he did so.  
  
The medics pushed Shiren away at the edge of the wall, not letting her go with Neji. She almost launched into an attack against them, but then she felt strong hands grip her arms. "You cannot go." Examiner Acade spoke. "As much as you might want to, your teammate forfeited, so you are the winner of this chuunin exam, and must be proclaimed it."  
  
Shiren turned to face Acade, and her face showed that she did not consider that at all important at the moment.  
  
"Would you have all that happened today, the deaths, the wounds, even this last match, be pointless?" He asked sternly. "Bear up, and finish this quickly. Then you can go. Until then, you have won."  
  
Acade raised Shiren's left hand, covered in blood though it was, high with his own. "The winner of the Hidden Village of Stone's Chuunin Exam! Senirai Shiren!" 


	30. Decisions in the Eye

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Well, first thing, apologies to everyone on not having updated for so long. I had finals and then came home for the summer, and it took a while to get back to this. Rest assured that I haven't abandoned it though. In any case, here's the new chapter, which has some very important information contained in it about Xi's past and what happened previously in lightning, though not the whole truth yet.  
  
Thanks to all reviewers! Apologies again!  
  
Decisions in the Eye  
  
The Tsuchikage's anteroom is a quiet place, a spare stone room with little more than rugs to decorate it, and cushions for visitors to sit upon. There is no throne here, no desk for the business of the Kage. That is reserved for the office, the business room. This room is simply a waiting room, but also a room for diplomacy, a room with no trappings or symbols, a room where all were equal.  
  
The windowless room was lit only by candles, and was quite dark on this day, the early morning following the chuunin exam. Three men sat on the cushions of this room this morning, one old and two the same age. Two wore the robes of Kages, while the third did not. They were seated in a triangle, each with his back to no one, and their weapons remained with them. Such was the meeting between Tsuchikage, Raikage, and Draci Xi.  
  
As it was he who had called the meeting, Tsuchikage spoke first. "The jounin of Stone have met since last night, and proclaimed that there was no wrongdoing at any point in the chuunin exam. All parties are blameless for all events that occurred. The Head ninja of grass has asked that an apology be given to Senirai Shiren for her rash actions, but I have been tasked to give it to you to give to her. The grass ninja left this morning, not more than an hour ago."  
  
Xi and Raikage gave no visible reaction to this news. Xi had expected it, and considered this the best possible outcome. Hopefully it ends here, whatever scheme that Tonetero creature represented, the grass ninja will leave it now that he is dead. Shiren may have done a very good thing.  
  
Tsuchikage continued. "I will announce to you that you are welcome to stay until the roads clear, Hidden Stone extends its hospitality to our distinguished guests." He turned to Raikage.  
  
"I have business back in Hidden Cloud, but I will stay until the end of the weak, so that the Monihii twins are fully recovered and we can devise a way to transport Yilosi Nemari." He responded simply.  
  
Tsuchikage nodded, and turned to Xi.  
  
"If it is no trouble, I would like to stay perhaps the rest of the month, so the grass can let their tempers cool before we must pass by that way again." He answered. That was not Xi's true reason, and everyone could tell that, but it was accepted.  
  
"You are going south then?" Tsuchikage asked as if it were a surprise. "Not returning to Cloud?"  
  
"I intend to return to the Leaf, at least for a time." Xi answered. "Draci Neji's training is not complete." Again the answer rang obviously false, but the excuse was legitimate, and so it could not be questioned.  
  
"Very well, I will accept that, you are free to remain." Tsuchikage answered. "I will leave you to talk in a moment." He told the two lightning ninja. "However, I feel I should relate the following. Tsukabe Ota was confirmed as a chuunin last night. I understand also that the grass jounin, the majority of whom were in attendance, confirmed Aburanki Kei over the head ninja's opposition."  
  
Xi managed to hide his surprise, but he had not expected the news, either its content or its source. I expected Kei would be ignored since Tonetero fell; obviously someone in grass is more farsighted than their head ninja. Yet why did you tell us that old man? That was the more important question to Xi. Is this some kind of offer of alliance? He looked over at Raikage, but the other ninja hid his feelings completely. Stone and Lightning had a treaty of non-aggression, which made sense since they were well apart, but they were not allies. What are you planning old man? Xi looked at the inscrutable face of Tsuchikage.  
  
There was nothing more forthcoming from the leader of Stone, however. He stood up from his cushion, gathered his staff, and walked to the door. "Feel free to talk here as long as you wish." He told both lightning ninja. "I expect you have much to say to each other."  
  
"Conniving old man." Xi muttered under his breath as Tsuchikage left.  
  
"He is a politician." Raikage replied tiredly. "And a good one. He has long deflected threats from this village while making it strong. Now events have delivered power into his hands and he is trying to figure out what he can accomplish with it. Even I can sense that much Xi." Raikage gave Xi a somber look, his face marked with many scars and lines of worry that a man his age should not possess. "Not all of us can chart our own paths as you do."  
  
"I don't recall you being so remorseful, soldier." Xi replied. "Has your strength gone?"  
  
"I am not weakened yet," Raikage responded with iron. "It has been eight years and I am stronger than I was when we last met, but even so, you were stronger than me then and you are even stronger than me now. It is hard to see another advance faster than you Xi."  
  
"You are the Raikage." Xi answered. "I am a wanderer and a killer, my improvement has been my goal. That has been my eight years." Xi softened his tone. "I can tell you are stronger, and that you are the Raikage, that is more than I could be."  
  
"Maybe." The shadow of a smile cracked Raikage's weathered lips. "But still, eight years of holding lightning together with all the will of a soldier who knows he cannot retreat. I have held my ground, but I fear the enemies have only multiplied."  
  
That was a sobering thought, and Xi could not but take the remark in all seriousness. "And there will not be another eight years." He spoke quietly. "Everything is moving now."  
  
Raikage nodded, and added one word. "Akatsuki."  
  
"Konoha was only the first, Orochimaru destroyed the strength of two villages and shattered the power of the missing-nin bands he had recruited in one day." Xi began the litany. "Then Uchiha Itachi and that meddler from mist, Kisame, come looking for a power the Leaf had hidden well. Even I will not reveal it to you now. They were stopped, but they were cunning, I was away, or I would have tried to stop them."  
  
"Could you have stopped Itachi?" Raikage asked darkly. "He wields the sharingan."  
  
"The leaf has great strength still, they stopped him long enough. Had I been there I would have at least killed Kisame." Xi answered grimly.  
  
"A pity." Came the reply. "I wish I could have killed that bastard myself, damn the bitch for everything. Eight years, and all I can do, and we still have not recovered. The Leaf could not destroy Cloud, but we did a good job of it ourselves."  
  
"I will kill her." Xi said sharply. "I promise you, I will do it."  
  
"I believe you Xi, and I fear I will have to hold you to it. The test of the strength of the Leaf has already come, and they have survived. When the test of our strength comes I will need you, I will need the dragon ninja."  
  
"I will be there." Xi answered. "I have been eight years gone, but I am no missing-nin, I am still a lightning ninja. You have my word." Xi paused. "It can't really be as bad as you say. Surely there is some strength that's grown up in eight years."  
  
"You'd be surprised what the clans can stifle Xi." Raikage replied. "I can push some things through, but only rarely. There aren't any wars right now, so no one listens to the soldier. There has been new strength, but the clans keep most of it for themselves, and send the rest off to get killed." The Raikage gave Xi a dark conspiratorial smile. "I suppose I owe you though, for this exam. I've made my decisions, and they're pretty clear- cut. The Monihii twins will be staying genin, considering that they got thoroughly beaten that shouldn't be a problem. Nemari, well, I suppose I'll have to thank Kabure Gosain for that when I give him word that he'll become a chuunin. That clan won't be giving me as much trouble now."  
  
"You will make Gosain a chuunin?" Xi repeated.  
  
"Yes." Raikage answered clearly. "I don't think there's any doubt. He beat Nemari even though the fool used a forbidden technique. He almost beat that stone ninja, Ota, as well, but was a bit too beat up." Raikage gave Xi a look. "Gosain is a lot like me, a soldiering ninja, a workhorse. I'm probably going to put a lot on his shoulders, but he has the experience to bear it. So I owe you for giving him the chance to become a chuunin. It's almost enough compensation for the trouble I'm going to have with Shiren."  
  
"Trouble?"  
  
"Don't play ignorant with me Xi." Raikage hissed. "It's your fault, as ridiculous as the whole situation is. Twenty-five students, one whole academy class, and Shiren's the only one without a clan to even become a genin. Now she becomes a chuunin while part of your team. How am I supposed to justify that?"  
  
"So you do intend to make Shiren a chuunin." Xi said with finality.  
  
"There was a question? She won the exam, even if by default in the final match. She defeated that monstrous thing the grass created, used a jounin level technique she learned without any instruction, and she showed taijutsu skills that would embarrass several special jounin. She's going to be a chuunin, I'm just going to take heat for it." Raikage sighed, and fingered his hat. "Who am I supposed to have her work with anyway?"  
  
Xi let that hang in the air for a moment before speaking. I'm glad you brought the subject up instead of me, he thought inwardly. "There may be a solution to that problem."  
  
Raikage's head snapped around. "You're not saying..."  
  
Xi nodded. "I made an...agreement, that if Shiren achieved chuunin rank I would train her as a dragon ninja. She is quite willing to undertake that."  
  
"Heh. Well that's a weapon I wouldn't mind having in the arsenal. I must admit Xi, I was rather angry when word came that you were training this leaf ninja, and a Hyuuga to boot. Could you have tried harder to stir up old grudges?" Xi moved to protest, but the Raikage silenced him with a slicing hand motion. "I know. I saw that one fight. He was going to block thunder and lightning strike somehow, I knew it, everybody did. That he could even conceive of such a thing makes me understand why you picked him, and if it helps push an alliance with the Leaf, that's all the better."  
  
"I doubt that will happen, the fifth Hokage is not fond of dragon ninja, and Neji's position among the Hyuuga is hardly the best. I do apologize for any damage I may have caused you, but the clans' idiocies are not my problem. The dragon ninja are, and Neji was the best choice, an opportunity I could not pass up." Xi made it clear he would neither apologize nor regret his decision.  
  
"A pity, the Leaf is no longer able to lord over us, it would be an excellent chance to try and forge an alliance." Raikage sighed. "Ah, what do I know, I'm no politician, I'm just a soldier. Xi, how long will you be continuing to train Neji, and now Shiren?"  
  
Xi did not have a quick answer to that, so he sat silent for a moment. Finally he spoke. "I truly do not know. Neji is close to ready, but he seems to have hit a wall of his own making. It will take something to break it, but once that is done he will be beyond my power to instruct. Shiren, that will take longer, but she is driven, and in this past month she has moved far closer without even my help. Perhaps she and Neji can even help each other, there have never been two dragon ninja learning together before since the Villages were born."  
  
"Whatever you do, hurry." Raikage told Xi. "There is little time, and a ninja of your ability cannot be spared. I would order you to return to Cloud as soon as Neji is ready, if not before, but that is impossible."  
  
Xi's face split with a look of hatred that both men knew well, but he did not speak.  
  
"Since that cannot be," Raikage continued. "I have a new mission for you. The time for spying is over. Draci Xi, I charge you with finding the workings of the Akatsuki and using whatever means necessary to destroy them. I cannot charge you as a hunter-nin, but this has gone beyond missing- nins. This is a war, and you are the only weapon I have now."  
  
"Justify it however you want, it is the same as before. I am still the hunter, and they are still traitors. Besides, I am not your only weapon. Neji and Shiren will fight for this cause as well." Xi's eyes narrowed to slits, and took on a ghastly inhuman redness. "Eight years ago I had two things left to accomplish. One was to pass on the legacy of the dragon ninja, and I have almost finished that. The other was to fulfill my last mission from that day, and I will not fail to fulfill it."  
  
"I suppose I can accept that much." Raikage answered with disappointment. "Very well, I believe we are done. I will see you again when I depart with Gosain." He turned to go.  
  
"Soldier," Xi said quietly as the Raikage stood in the door, his back to the seated dragon ninja. "We may not have ever been friends, but you have my respect, then and now."  
  
There was not motion from the Raikage to indicate how he took that remark. "You, hunter, have a mission to fulfill." The command was snapped out as if on the battlefield, and then he was gone.  
  
Xi sat there for a time after Raikage had gone. Eight years, it doesn't seem long enough, he decided. Am I strong enough? Xi had not asked himself that question in some time. There have been other concerns. I defeated the four ninja here, skilled jounin from waterfall, but is that enough? I will need to be stronger than my old master was, that is the measure, and I can never know.  
  
Angrily Xi pushed the thoughts away. I will do what must be done. I failed once, and others paid the price for that failure, and I have paid, for eight years everything has hung in the shadow of that failure, and now it is moving back again. I will kill her, but I need to find her. No one knows, all my spying and searching and I have found nothing in eight years. There must be an answer somewhere though, if the Akatsuki are moving, she will reveal herself as one of them, and then the chance to strike will come. Xi's face grew cold. I will not miss the chance. 


	31. Within Bare Walls

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: So, another chapter. This one is a quiet chapter, and the next one will be too, but things will vamp up shortly. I'm hoping to make this story arc a little more condensed so I can move into the big final section, but there's a lot to do for that.  
  
There were some good questions from the reviewers about the last chapter, so let me see if I can manage some answers:  
  
Orlha: this lady has done all sorts of horrible things, which I won't reveal just yet, but don't worry, she's plenty villainous. As for Neji, well, technically he's not promoted yet (since Tsunade has to make the ruling) everyone knows he's going to be, so he's effectively a chuunin.  
  
Daniel of Lorien: I've written in the Akatsuki because I feel that I can freely borrow two out of nine villains without bothering anyone, given that only three have appeared so far in the manga and figuring that at least some should be from villages that have nothing to do with Konoha (ie. Lightning) and therefore won't be dealt with as part of the main plot. Naruto as a character is not appearing in this story at all, and neither will any of the other characters, mostly because I truly disdain to project out their abilities, and because I can't write for a character like Naruto (really I'm only using Neji because he's well, dead).  
  
Hattuteline: no, I'm not letting the story go, I fully intend to finish the whole thing, but as it gets progressively longer it becomes more difficult to add new parts sometimes, which means things take longer. Ultimately I hope to finish all of this by the end of the summer (but I don't think I'll make it).  
  
Uchiha Kumiko: I'm glad my techniques have turned out good. Some of them were heavily planned (like Rend) and some were rather fortuitous accidents (like Mizuho). In many ways the hardest part of coming up with the exam was coming up with new techniques, especially chuunin level ones. I'm not a humor-endowed author (in fact my own sense of humor is rather strange) but ultimately I don't think of ninjas as particularly funny anyway. I'm glad it works though.  
  
Within Bare Walls  
  
Another white hospital room, how unappealing. That was Neji's first thought as his vision gradually returned to him. Slowly, his eyes painfully aware of how light those white walls made everything; he opened his eyes and saw the world again. A moment more and he saw an entirely different color. Black, in luxurious waves. What is...ah, Shiren. He recognized her hair, unbound as it rarely was. A moment later and he could sense her breathing.  
  
Slowly, and with moments of pain from his bound right shoulder, Neji turned his head. It is Shiren. He recognized her easily, lying slumped in a chair, sleeping by his bedside. As he did the memories of the day before came flooding back to him, and he recalled what had happened before he lost consciousness. The memory made Neji wince, and he looked deep within in disappointment. Did I really almost do...that? He sat in silence considering it, recognizing that what had happened had happened. I almost killed her, and she almost killed me. A fine pair we are. Is that the fate of dragon ninja?  
  
Neji closed his eyes for a moment, and took in a deep breath. If that is this fate, then I will simply have to fight it. He resolved that, confirming the decision he had made on the mountainside after witnessing the destruction wrought by Wusashu. There must be another way.  
  
In a moment Neji moved to sit up, and he found that a throbbing ache surged down his right side the very moment he began to move. Turning his head he saw the white bandages wrapped there, over pale and white flesh, and a great hole in his body he could feel if not see. He had been struck by thunder and the mark was severe. Neji let himself fall back onto the bed, and then rolled his body onto his left side. From there he levered himself upward to a sitting position. With careful movement he could minimize the pain in his right side.  
  
This motion was far from silent, and with the rustling of the sheets Shiren's eyes snapped open. Her head shook and she stared at Neji suddenly, meeting his eyes with frightful urgency. As he watched Neji saw them grow watery and teary, though Shiren held back the tears and sat up fully herself.  
  
"Neji, you're awake." Shiren said, her voice soft and gentle, a tone Neji found surprising, but he recognized the caring behind it, and felt out of his depth in forming a response. "I'm glad." Shiren continued. "The medical ninja said the damage was serious," she paused. "But...but they said you should be fine, and with treatment fully healthy in a few days. That's..." She paused again, and now the tears did seep out. "Neji, I'm so sorry, really, I...I can't believe what happened."  
  
"It's alright." Neji said immediately, without even thinking the words. "What happened is done with, and we promised it would never happen again. That's enough Shiren, more than enough."  
  
"Neji." Shiren said, grabbing his left hand with both of hers, letting Neji feel their warmth pressing down. "It's not enough." She said seriously. "When I think about what would have happened if I had completed the move, if you hadn't opened my eyes, I can't bear it." She looked deeply into his eyes again. "I spent all of the ceremony yesterday standing there, listening blindly as I relived those moments, seeing the strike, seeing you fall, your eyes closing. Neji, if I had finished the move, if you were gone, I couldn't bear it." Shiren gazed into Neji's white eyes with desperation, and her hands squeezed his own with iron force. "I couldn't bear to go on without you here."  
  
For Neji, looking into Shiren's eyes, it was a shocking moment, recognizing that his feelings mirrored her own, that she felt the same way. "Shiren." He spoke quietly, his voice low, but unguarded as it never was around others, lacking in the tight controls he kept on it. "It's the same for me."  
  
"What?"  
  
"I was going to do my own move." He told her softly, his own sadness in his voice. "I could have blocked your strike, countered it so that the lightning blow would never have a chance to land, there is a way, to blend Kaiten with a dragon jutsu, but it would have destroyed you." Neji looked deeply into Shiren's dark brown eyes, so different from his own, yet so similar. "Shiren, I was going to do it, just as you were going to complete your move, only Xi's prohibition, that I not kill, only that gave me time to realize what I was doing. Everything else is the same." He paused. "I saw the same things you saw, before I fell, I saw it all happen. I couldn't have done it, I refuse to lose you."  
  
The tears stopped flowing from Shiren then, and a soft smile stretched over her lips. "Thank you, Neji." She took her right hand off of his. "I'm really glad you said that." Shiren leaned over next to Neji for a moment, and for a second he was confused. She pressed her right hand against his back and bent in close. Her hair fell around Neji, and her lips brushed his lightly. Only for a moment, and Neji was stuck silent, and his emotions leapt and knotted strangely inside him, feeling that strange soft touch, and then it was gone. "Thank you, Neji." Shiren repeated, and then she let go, sitting back down in her chair.  
  
Neji blinked, trying to confirm what had just happened. He squashed the urge to run his fingers over his lips, as if to touch some residue of Shiren's essence. Confused, he tried to sort things out, but realized it was impossible. I...is this possible? He couldn't answer that, and so, before he lost his composure completely, changed the subject.  
  
"Shiren, has Xi come by?" He asked simply, returning to seriousness.  
  
Sensing both Neji's confusion and the need to change subjects Shiren answered readily. "Yes, for a moment. He has been in conversation with Raikage and Tsuchikage for a long time."  
  
"Did he say anything?" Neji asked, recalling now the agreement that he and Xi had made, wondering what the outcome would be. Let it be, please. It would be impossible for anything else.  
  
Shiren's face dropped. "He did, Neji. He told me that the Raikage made his decision, the Gosain will be made a chuunin, and that I will be."  
  
Hearing the news Neji felt a great deal of happiness. "A chuunin, he didn't say anything else?" Neji muttered.  
  
"No, that's all." Shiren said dourly. "He didn't seem proud of me at all, or Gosain, or even of you. Xi seemed to be ignoring us, like there was something else more important."  
  
"Heh." Neji replied, and looked straight in the eye, feeling smile creep over his normally stern face. "It may not be something he wants to think about now, but if you are going to be a chuunin, Xi agreed to teach you as a dragon ninja."  
  
Shiren looked at Neji carefully, as if looking for the repetition of the words in his blank eyes. "Really?" She gasped. "He agreed to that?"  
  
"Yes."  
  
"Then...then everything is so much better." Shiren whispered. "I was worried, that I would have to say goodbye Neji, that I would go back to lightning. And instead, you tell me that I can reach my dream." She brushed away the beginning of tears from her eyes. "It makes me very happy."  
  
Neji felt Shiren's happiness, and enjoyed it with her, but there was darkness there too. "Shiren," He said darkly. "It is not a pleasant thing to be a dragon ninja, to be a killer. Do you truly want that?" It was hard to force out the words, but Neji knew he had to say them, had to be honest with her.  
  
The stare that she returned was crystal clear. "Do not think I do not know Neji." She answered. "My first glimpse of Xi was when he killed a man in front of me, but this is my decision. I will serve lightning, and this is the only way, so I will take it." She continued more lightly. "Besides, some things are worth accepting to be close to the right people."  
  
Neji was only able to nod. "Ah." He muttered, and then fell silent, looking away for a moment. I need to shift the conversation, we understand each other too well to need to discuss this, he realized. "I suppose it really doesn't matter until Xi comes back. Anyway, have you seen Gosain?" He asked.  
  
It was simple for Shiren to sense what Neji was doing, and so she responded accordingly. "I have, but only for a moment. He is down the hall a short distance. I went with Xi to speak with him for a moment, that's all."  
  
"Then we should go and see him." Neji remarked. "Also, you said I should visit that grass ninja, Kei, with you as well."  
  
"I did," Shiren answered. "But you can't leave your bed yet."  
  
"Heh." Neji muttered under his breath. "My shoulder hurts, but I can walk down a hallway." Neji used his left arm to prop himself up, moving to a sitting position. He pulled his legs over under him, and then off the side of the bed, all with only a minor wince of pain. However, when he hopped out of the bed and onto his feet his right arm swung forward, and stabbing pain shot up the limb, causing Neji to cry out against his will.  
  
Shiren was by his side in an instant, grabbing him from the good left side and holding him up. "Are you sure?" She asked, concerned.  
  
"I'll be alright," Neji managed. "Thanks." He added.  
  
"I guess it will be alright for just a short trip down the hall." She smiled tiredly up at Neji, and placing his left arm over her back, began to walk with him.  
  
So now our positions are reversed, Neji recalled, remembering that he had carried Shiren up the mountainside when she had been wounded. Despite the pain, he found it was a pleasant feeling to walk so close to her.  
  
Their progress down the hallway was slow, and by the time they had passed the three doors necessary to reach Gosain's room the pain was seriously wearying Neji, but he bore it stoically. Shiren, likewise, said nothing more of the wound, trying to ignore having inflicted it, as they had decided together.  
  
Shiren opened the door to Gosain's room and Neji found the other ninja sitting up in bed, covered in many bandages, but quietly reading a scroll. He looked up as they entered, but said nothing until Shiren helped Neji into the chair. Gosain's eyes passed from Neji to Shiren and then back again, searching. He was silent for a moment, and then spoke, choosing his words carefully. "What brings you two here?" He asked.  
  
"I wished to check my teammate's condition." Neji answered coldly, but brightened slightly with his next sentence. "And congratulate him on becoming a chuunin." Gosain nodded at this. "How are you Gosain?"  
  
"Tolerable." The older ninja answered. "That stone ninja hits like a boulder, the medics said I had two ribs cracked and most of the rest are bruised." Gosain coughed. "It makes it hard to breathe, but I've had a lot worse, give me a few days and I'll be fine." Gosain cased Neji carefully, with eyes that knew how to look for pain. "How'd you get hurt like that? That stone ninja doesn't strike me as the type to stab..." Gosain trailed off, looking at Shiren again. "Well, no wonder you've been so quiet, Shiren."  
  
Shiren looked away from Gosain, but Neji grabbed her arm, pulling her back. "It's not like that Gosain." He told the other ninja. "I don't know if they told you, but Shiren beat me, she used the same move used against Tonetero, and so I forfeited the match perhaps a moment too late, but it is not something I do not accept."  
  
Gosain gave Neji a strange look, grasping for something to say. "Shiren won huh? No, no one told me that. Xi stopped by this morning for about five seconds, said I'd been made a chuunin, and you two as well, but that was it." He gave the pair another look. "Well, I guess whatever happened is between the two of you anyway, it's not my business, so I won't ask more."  
  
Shiren gave a silent nod of thanks. Neji said nothing. "I suppose you will be going back to lightning now. I expect I'll see you when you go, but regardless, I will remember having served on a team with you, Gosain. You were a good teammate."  
  
"Heh." Gosain's eyes clouded for a moment. "You two were the best teammates I've had, hell, the only time I've had two teammates come back ready to keep going. We all made chuunin right? That's pretty damn good. It's kind of a shame to break the group up, but that's the way it goes." He looked at Shiren again. "You staying?"  
  
"Yes. I will become a dragon ninja."  
  
"That's good I guess, though I'll miss having a companion back home, but that's nothing new." Gosain paused. "That's enough for now I suppose. It's good to know what happened, but I'll save the goodbyes for when it's actually time to leave."  
  
Neji nodded, and stood up. "Thanks, Gosain." He told the lightning ninja as he and Shiren left.  
  
"Kei is across the hall." Shiren whispered as she closed the door to Gosain's room.  
  
"Heh. A short walk then."  
  
Shiren pulled the door open slowly, and then jumped aside swiftly as a kunai slashed through the air where her head had been, to slam into the far wall of the hallway.  
  
"Damn, that was my last shot." A bitter voice, the voice of Aburanki Kei, came from within. "If you're going to finish it off you should do it quickly, before I start screaming."  
  
"Please don't do that." Shiren said softly as she extended her head around the doorframe.  
  
"You!" Kei reacted with shock. "I'm sorry." She said immediately. "The motions didn't match the nurses, so I thought the grass ninja had sent someone to do me in." The voice mellowed tiredly. "I've been jumping at every sound since yesterday, please come in, with you here I can relax a bit."  
  
Shiren stepped around the door, taking Neji with her, and affording him his first look at Aburanki Kei since yesterday. The grass ninja was covered in bandages, such that only her eyes and mouth showed clearly. She was pale from blood loss, and dark circles lay under her eyes, evidence of exhaustion. The wounds inflicted by Tonetero's cutting thorns did not heal easily. Kei saw Neji and looked at him in surprise. "I didn't expect you to come, dragon ninja."  
  
Slipping into the unused chair, Neji took a moment to let the pain in his arm subside before answering. "Shiren requested that I visit you."  
  
"Well, two people is preferential over one I suppose." Kei answered tiredly. "I'm sorry about the kunai lightning ninja," She said to Shiren. "But I truly expected a visit from a grass ninja to take my life."  
  
"Why?" Shiren asked softly. "Should they not be after me?"  
  
"Ah, yes, I was told that you killed him." Kei replied. "A stone ninja, I suppose he was one of the medics, he told me the results of the tournament. No, they are not after you." Kei laughed bitterly, and then entered into a fit of coughing. "Sorry. They are not after you; it would be a stupid move. Tonetero was supposed to win the tournament you know, that was the plan. My job was to insure he didn't get in trouble until the final stages." Kei's eyes narrowed. "They made me suffer as the target for his mockery, to be his shadowy protector, that damn monster."  
  
"What was he?" Neji asked. "His abilities were very strange, certainly a bloodline limit, but he had no clan name."  
  
Kei's head snapped around. "You see too much, dragon ninja." She snapped with biting anger that lapsed immediately. More gently she continued. "That much I cannot say."  
  
"Understandable." Neji replied. So, he was truly like Gaara.  
  
"Anyway, you killed him, thank you." Kei told Shiren. "I did not expect that, I had hoped you would defeat him, but I didn't believe it was possible. I apologize for doubting you."  
  
"You doubt yourself too much." Shiren replied. "You are stronger than you make yourself out to be."  
  
"I'm not strong enough." Kei said sadly. "I wasn't strong enough to obey orders and hope for his success, and for that I will be blamed. That's why I think they will kill me." She turned her bandaged head to Neji. "Dragon ninja, you said I would owe your companion..."  
  
"It is not import-"Shiren interrupted, only to have Neji cut her off.  
  
"Shiren, you are going to be a dragon ninja," Neji said, regret present in his voice. "We collect debt. Nothing is for free. Yes, you will owe Shiren, Aburanki Kei."  
  
"I will pay it back," Kei said seriously. "I will pay it back someday, if I survive anyway." She shook her head. Neji and Shiren looked on in silence for a moment.  
  
"You will survive grass ninja." The words were harsh, but hopeful, and their source was instantly recognizable.  
  
"Xi." Neji said without turning, for indeed the older dragon ninja stood in the door.  
  
Kei looked at him. "Draci Xi? The jounin for your team?"  
  
"Yes." Shiren said. "It seems we will have to go."  
  
"Correct, Shiren." Xi admonished. "You need to get Neji back to his bed, since he will need to recover quickly in order to help train you."  
  
"Help train her?" Neji asked, incredulous.  
  
"Well, you don't seem to be listening to anything I say these days, Neji, so you can help train Shiren." Xi turned to Kei. "I will be taking these two from you." He told her.  
  
"What did you mean?" Kei asked, desperation in her voice, as Xi turned to go. "What did you mean, I will survive?"  
  
"The grass jounin confirmed you as a chuunin last night, over the head ninja's objections. Raikage and Tsuchikage believe it was the correct decision. You will survive and return to your village, that is all." And Xi left the room, dragging Neji and Shiren behind him.  
  
"I will see you another day." Shiren whispered to the shocked and speechless Kei as they left.  
  
Neji was silent, considering the words of both Kei and Xi. I doubt I will ever see the Grass ninja again. He determined. I suppose it doesn't matter, she is not important to me now. Train Shiren? He wondered about that. Neji had never trained anyone. Oh, he had trained with TenTen extensively, but that had been far more one sided. How am I supposed to train Shiren, I have not mastered the dragon ninja methods yet. What did Xi mean I am not listening to him? Neji had a great deal of respect for the senior dragon ninja, and listened carefully to everything he said. Indeed he had memorized Xi's instructions for every dragon jutsu. So how am I not listening? Neji determined to find the answer to that remark. 


	32. A Cold Parting

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Alright new chapter, my pace has quickened, mostly from having little to do over memorial day weekend. For the action inclined, sorry, no fighting in this chapter, but I promise things are about get rather substantially violent and pretty much stay that way as things continue. For anyone who cares about the whether Neji is dead issue, feel free to email me your thoughts and I'll respond with my own (lengthy) view on the matter, but I won't discuss it here.  
  
Anyway, thanks to everyone who reviews, I'll try to keep things going quickly now!  
  
A Cold Parting  
  
"No!" Xi barked. "Do it again, both of you! Shiren, you're letting your control slip when you contact the wood. Neji, focus dammit! That move requires power behind it, willingness to strike, hit hard! Now, again!"  
  
The commands were harsh in the cold air, and the dragon ninja merciless upon his two pupils. Again and again the commands, the instructions, beating on the spirit, with no breaks or pauses, only the unceasing training. The cold mountain air was raw in the lungs after only a few breaths, and under the pressures of such exertions as these it burned terribly, scorching and agonizing. Xi refused to let up, he pushed them hard, again and again, Dragon Rend, Dragon Swipe, two different moves, one purpose, to push the killing techniques into his students, to force them to learn them.  
  
For three days they had trained in this brutal fashion, practicing until their chakra ran out, pausing only long enough to recover it, and then practicing some more. It was horrible to endure, falling down at the edge of the field almost everyday, Shiren and Neji staring into each other's eyes wondering when it would let up, but they did not complain. Not an ounce, they understood.  
  
Xi's purpose was twofold, to make them learn the jutsus the only way he knew, by endless repetition until complete precision was achieved, and to build strength and stamina. When their chakra was exhausted he did not give breaks, but they went through exercises and runs, forcing them to become more capable. The frozen ground was murderous on the feet, and running through the snow in boots felt like you were dragging a great weight on your feet, but it made a person strong.  
  
"Be grateful." Xi had said at the end of the first day. "We have a month before storms abate below us and it becomes possible to take the roads south again with ease. A month to train, so we will make the most of it, because when this month is over the world will begin moving again. It is luck that brings us this hard place to build strength. You will need strength." He had said sternly. Quietly he had added. "As will I."  
  
Indeed Shiren and Neji could not even contemplate complaining, for as hard as Xi pushed them he pushed himself harder. There is some demon driving him. Neji thought, he is preparing for something and he does not think he is ready. It was obvious to Neji, but he could not fathom what could make Xi push himself so. The older ninja's reserves of stamina were incredible, his strength tremendous. His chakra potential had long since reached its maximum, but Xi would sprint through ice caves on the ceilings to improve his control, and leap up frozen cliffs and waterfalls. He did not spar against opponents, but set extraordinarily exacting courses, where even he failed to hit targets, and would try them again and again until he got them perfectly.  
  
Several stone ninja had stopped by to watch him at times. "This dragon ninja is insane." One of them told Neji.  
  
"No, he is preparing the best way for our type." Neji answered derisively, and stopped bothering to recognize the presence of stone ninja.  
  
The day wore on interminably. I am not making progress. Neji decided. Shiren is, I can see it, and she is getting better at forming blades. It is difficult, and it will take time, but she will learn the jutsu eventually. I...I am stuck, why am I not advancing. I know how to do the jutsu, I apply the right amount of chakra at the right time, and I can perform everything flawlessly, so why does it not work? There must be a mistake I'm missing, something that is preventing me from fixing it. Neji searched constantly for any mistake, using all his senses and his enhanced vision; by he could not find anything. Xi railed at him, but the older ninja's words did not inspire him, did not provide any opportunity.  
  
When darkness totally covered the mountainside Xi finally told them to stop. "Enough. That's...enough." He spoke though gasping breaths, as his students likewise tried to haul in as much air as they possibly could. "We will go in for the evening now, any more and injury is the likely result. Come."  
  
They walked back slowly, over a path long since beaten into the deep snow. No longer exerting themselves to their utmost they became conscious of the bitter cold. Neji and Shiren walked close together, side-by-side, and staring at Xi's back. She offered a weak smile, as she had the two nights before, but they had no more strength to say anything.  
  
As always, Neji found himself confused by his feelings for Shiren. He had difficulty saying anything of meaning to her, but he knew Shiren could easily detect that. Likewise she said little to him, but gave him those soft and quiet smiles that made him quiver inside. It was an impermanent situation, they could both tell, but at the moment Xi pushed them too hard to make time for anything more. Stumbling back to their loggings to desperately consume their hot dinner, and then doing little more but collapsing onto their pallets at night left little space for conversation. Though Neji recognized that his pallet was ever so slowly creeping nearer to Shiren's, and made no move to avert that progression.  
  
During this meal there was a small deviation from the norm. Xi put down his chopsticks and looked at both of his students, causing them to pause as well. "We will have a different routine tomorrow." He told them levelly. "Tomorrow the Raikage and his lightning ninja are leaving, so we will take the time to say goodbye at least. That will take up much of the morning, and I intend to make up the time in the afternoon." Xi looked into the eyes of Neji and Shiren in turn. "Once tomorrow is over there will be no pauses until this month is done. I intend to have you two ready to go once the passes are melted enough for our passage. Shiren, it is your objective to learn Rend by then. Neji, I know and you know that you can do these jutsus. You must find what is holding you back and rid yourself of it, and you must strengthen your body. You have yet to reach your full strength, that is almost as important as the jutsus."  
  
With that Xi stood up and left, leaving for his own room, the room that he never slept in. Neji and Shiren continuously wondered at that, but had yet to pierce the mystery.  
They returned to their meal, making sure to finish everything, recognizing how much they needed the energy, how draining the hard work in the snow was. When they were done they turned to each other. "One month then." Neji muttered. "It will be a long time."  
  
"I wonder why he is keeping us here." Shiren considered. "We could forge our way through the passes the same as Raikage-sama, we could even leave with him if we wished."  
  
"There is certainly a reason." Neji decided. "Likely the same one as why Xi pushes himself so hard. Perhaps we can glimpse it tomorrow."  
  
They said nothing more before going to the room they shared and collapsing into sleep, Neji's last glimpse before sleep took him was of Shiren's calm face.  
  
The morning comes with a chill wind, and snow falls lightly as ninja scramble about at the edge of the village of stone. They number perhaps a dozen, young ninja and adults, skilled and unskilled. They strap baggage to bulls and donkeys, loading down the fur wrapped animals only lightly, realizing that a heavy load would be crippling given the snowy reaches they must cross. A single jounin gives them orders, and the group, mostly chuunin obeys with some grumbling. Two identical youths, the Monihii twins, are part of the loading, and they grumble the most, for they are given the most thankless of tasks, cleaning up after the animals.  
  
Behind one of the teams of oxen is a large cart filled with straw and blankets, all the other ninja avoid looking at the silent cart, save the two who stand to one side. One is tall and imperious, wearing his white robes and hat with their light blue symbols and the ever-present sword on his back, the Raikage. Next to him stands Kabure Gosain. The chuunin is uncomfortable, standing near the stern-faced kage, and he fiddles with the pole in his hand, wondering why he is not part of the loading. He suspects the reason is so not to antagonize the Monihii twins, but Gosain sees no reason why offending their sensibilities is a problem. So he is left staring at that quiet cart, the vehicle that contains the immobile form of Yilosi Nemari.  
  
The crippled ninja cannot move, and his blankets and straw are piled high enough that he cannot see Gosain watching him. If he could he would likely be spouting a stream of curses, as he had before when he glimpsed Gosain walk by, but curses were the only vent to his hatred now. Looking at the cart, hastily rigged to attempt to carry Nemari over the mountains, Gosain felt compelled to ask the question. "Raikage-sama, were attempts made to heal him?" It was a strange query, for Gosain found that he truly did not care the moment the words slipped from his mouth. He had put Nemari and everything he represented behind him when he heard he had been made a chuunin.  
  
"An attempt was made, the Examiner, Special Jounin Acade, insisted upon it." Raikage replied, leaving the implications unsaid. "The best medical ninja in Hidden Stone tried and failed. The cut you made was too deep and clean, no medical technique can reattach the severed nerves and slashed bones. I doubt even the fabled Tsunade who serves as the Hokage could perform that trick." The words were relayed matter-of-factly, the Raikage hiding his feelings, something Gosain had noticed the man did commonly, letting anything slip only when his anger overwhelmed his control, something that had only happened once, when Nemari had his bed wheeled in while the Raikage visited him and demanded Gosain's death.  
  
Gosain trembled to remember the man's rage then. He suspected that had Nemari not been crippled Raikage would have had him whipped to the edge of his life and run ragged about the whole village. As it was Raikage railed at Nemari and informed him in cruel words that he was dismissed forever from the ranks of Lightning's ninja and he should thank the fates for his disability, or he might face death for his use of forbidden jutsu.  
  
Though they had spoken little and met only a few times Gosain found he had great respect for Raikage, a man he had always considered very distant and someone unaware of his problems. Now, seeing how the man carried himself, how he forced himself to control the great anger he felt at so many inefficiencies and political artifices, Gosain admired the man. I have little use for politics myself, it has always gotten me and my companions hurt. I would rather fight, and I sense Raikage-sama would as well.  
  
"Ah, they have come." Raikage's voice broke Gosain from his revere.  
  
Gosain looked out into the cold and snowy hills, following Raikage's gaze. There he saw them approach, three figures, two men and one woman. The one to whom he owed the rank of chuunin, Xi, and his teammates, perhaps he even dared call them friends, Neji and Shiren. Looking out though, Gosain saw another figure, one coming out to the party from the north side, wearing the clothes of a stone ninja, but wearing a sword as a samurai does. Gosain did not recognize him, but he stiffened in readiness, wondering what the presence of a stone ninja foretold.  
  
However, he quickly pushed that vision to the edge of his mind, and turned to Xi, Neji, and Shiren.  
  
Xi was in front, his slightly longer stride and forcible walk propelling him ahead of his students. He approached Gosain and Raikage.  
  
Gosain held out his hand to Xi. "Thank you once more for letting me travel with your team, so that I became a chuunin."  
  
Xi gave the hand a cold look, filled with iron, then took it in his own gloved hand and gave a single shake. "I needed you as part of the team just as much. There is no debt between us." Then he turned to Raikage.  
  
The leader of Hidden Cloud stepped away from Gosain. "I leave you to say goodbye to your friends. I have some words yet to speak to the dragon ninja."  
  
Neji and Shiren stood in front of Gosain. Neji extended his hand first, and shook Gosain's firmly. Gosain met those strange white eyes without fear or trepidation, and he was rewarded with the slightest hint of smile from Neji. Neji looked at Gosain, and decided to speak what he really thought. "I appreciated your companionship, Kabure Gosain, and am sorry it is over." He paused, looking past Gosain for a moment, and the lightning ninja could have sworn Neji glanced at Shiren, though he could tell little from those pupil-less eyes. "Should I ever come to your village perhaps we can talk. I hope we never become enemies."  
  
"Ah." Gosain said. "I suspect I would not live long if we did." It was a joking comment, but Neji looked into Gosain's dark eyes and saw the fear there. He knows we would not hesitate if it came to that, and he thinks I would kill him. But I would not, I would not, it would not need to be killing. He told himself that even as he felt a crawling sensation within, and was not so sure. Do you believe that? It is not so easy. It seemed to whisper, and Neji had a horrible sensation that the voice that spoke the words was Gosain's own.  
  
"I truly hope that never happens." Neji managed to reply after the uncomfortable pause Gosain's remark had left. Then he stepped back.  
  
Shiren greeted Gosain with a smile. "Thank you for coming with us Gosain." She said happily. "You helped us both through all the trials here, and without you we would not have succeeded. I hope I will see you again as soon as fate and missions allow."  
  
"I hope so as well, both of you." Gosain managed a smile from his own grim and lined face. It stretched his scars uncomfortably to do not, but then, perhaps he just was not used to smiling. "You may well have broken my curse, and that much is worth at least as much as becoming a chuunin." His smiled faded as he continued more quietly. "This time I am not leaving anyone behind."  
  
Shiren shook Gosain's hand then, and embraced him gently for a moment. "Keep watch at home for us." Shiren whispered to him. "I don't like the look Xi gave Raikage-sama."  
  
"Ah." Gosain grunted as Shiren released him. "I'll do that. Watch your own backs, both of you, you've made some enemies here, and Xi is not the type to protect anyone."  
  
"We will be careful." Neji answered. "Now it seems it is time for you to leave." He pointed out the returning Raikage and Xi.  
  
"So the dragon ninja is staying, and there number has increased." The voice was hard-edged, accusational. "This is not what I expected."  
  
Neji, Shiren, and Gosain turned their heads to see that the voice had come from the stone ninja, the man they had mostly been ignoring while they said their goodbyes. He was young, perhaps seventeen years old at most, a year younger than Gosain, he was nondescript, but his wiry form held a quickness and power that Neji noted instantly, and his eyes had a crystalline clarity that was complete focused on those before him. His right hand was on the hilt of the sword hanging at his side, and Neji saw by his stance that he was able to draw and cut instantaneously.  
  
"What do you want, Kataishi Dar?" Xi remarked without turning to look at the stone ninja.  
  
"Kataishi Dar?" The Raikage whirled about to look at the stone ninja, and his eyes narrowed when he saw him. "You are awfully bold for a chuunin. Do you have no duties to be about?"  
  
"At the moment no, and I wished to see for myself what the situation was. Tsuchikage-sama plays the cards close to his chest. I expected that you would all go back to your village, or failing that only the dragon ninja would stay." Dar released his sword hilt. "It seems I was mistaken, the situation has become far more interesting."  
  
"You are being far too curious for your own good." Raikage replied. "All matters between our villages have been settled between myself and Tsuchikage, you have no business prowling about."  
  
"The chuunin is not here for you, soldier." Xi snapped offhandedly, and Neji almost stumbled when he heard the Raikage referred to that way. Shiren and Gosain's heads snapped around, but their kage did not react to the slight, instead he seemed accustomed to it. "He's here to watch me."  
  
Dar nodded silently, and a grim smile crossed his lips.  
  
"Enough boy, the dragon ninja are not leaving, and you can watch us plenty more while we train, if you truly wish. Leave these others to their leave-taking." Xi's eyes were cold, and they threatened much if he was not obeyed.  
  
"As you will, I have learned what I came for anyway." Dar turned a quick about face and strode off in the other direction, not bothering to look back.  
  
"That one knows how far to push things entirely too well." The Raikage muttered as Dar's back receded from view.  
  
"No so well as he thinks." Xi remarked. "But we have lingered here too long soldier. There's work to do."  
  
"Yes, there is." Raikage turned away from Xi. "Remember my commands, and that I am the law of Lightning still, dragon ninja. Do not forget that."  
  
"I will remember." Xi said in a voice that seemed to freeze the moment the words left his mouth. "I will not fail."  
  
The three dragon ninja watched the Lightning ninja get on their bulls and drive the donkeys and oxen forward, the Raikage and Gosain walking side by side as they headed down from the mountain saddle that held the village of Stone. Soon they were lost in the snow. "That's enough." Xi told them. "Let's get back to work." 


	33. The Bleak Passage

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And I blast out another chapter, this is what happens when there are three-day weekends and I'm not doing much. Or maybe it's just that I'm getting to the heart of long anticipated sections. Anyway, I appear to have even beaten the reviews to the punch, oh well. The plot arc switch completes with this admittedly quite lengthy chapter. This plot arc is a small one (much shorter than the last one) but very important, as it will finish setting the stage for the big final plot arc. There's plenty of everything in this chapter I think, action and otherwise (though thank god no duels, I got so sick of writing duels).  
  
As a side note, at the current mark this story is the longest single Naruto story on fanfic.net (surpassed in all only by both parts of There Where When is Now, Books 1 and 2) not bad for a fanfic that doesn't involve the main protagonist at all.  
  
So, thanks to reviewers, and I'd definitely appreciate comments on the many events of this chapter!  
  
The Bleak Passage  
  
The southern road from Hidden Stone is a long and winding passage through the sides of mountains, which gradually slumps down into the grand valley that holds the countries of Grass and Rain, before merging with the grand desert that is the Wind Country. The air at the end of the valley becomes fouled and strange in the country of Rain, but blowing down from the mountains of Stone it is filled with water and creates the verdant plains of Grass country.  
  
Here, in the southern lands of Stone Country, near the turn that brings the road in toward Konoha, the land is empty. There are few villages here on these scrubby hills. Only the grand pastures of wandering shepherds and ranches, tending their livestock and living in small traveling huts for most of the year. Now, in the very beginning of spring, they are out opening the lands with their flocks and herds, so the roads are empty.  
  
Three ninja walk steadily along this road, watchful and ready, but relatively relaxed. They are in an empty land, and the border to Grass Country is some kilometers south. The walk has so far been pleasantly mundane, if cold.  
  
Neji and Shiren walk together behind Xi. The older dragon ninja ignores his students for the most part, watching the landscape intently, looking for any signs. These lands are little patrolled by Stone ninja, especially in this time of year, and Xi suspects that the Grass ninja have been approaching the border regularly. That scheme with Tonetero did not happen in a vacuum. They must be planning to attack someone. If they had won during the exam, as Aburanki Kei's testimony indicated was the intent, they might have reasonably seized a piece of Stone land. That was a troubling possibility, for Xi knew that Grass could not possibly wage a war against Hidden Stone, especially not if that village had the support of Waterfall. The Grass country was not powerful, and Stone was the strongest of all.  
  
It would have been a political ploy, Xi reasoned. Perhaps they planned to offer their support in an attack upon the Fire country in return for withdrawing from annexed lands. That was the possibility that Raikage had whispered to Xi in the moments before they left. Xi had thought it unlikely at first, but then he had considered the politics, and found the possibility quite dire. If Grass had successfully demonstrated its strength in both the exam and in warfare, the possibility would be tempting, especially if Tsuchikage knew just how weak Konoha really was. Xi's discussions with Raikage had indicated Konoha had so far succeeded in obscuring much of its weakness, partly through a strong alliance with Sand. Yet the Akatsuki know, they know the truth, and they are capable of manipulating the situation. The military strength of Konoha and the Sand was destroyed, Lightning's is divided, so that leaves only Stone and Mist, the two strongest remaining countries. Breaking stone would be a tremendous victory for the Akatsuki. Xi grew grim whenever he thought of it, but he had been swift to realize there was an opportunity. If there had been a ploy centered in Grass, then one of the Akatsuki was there. Xi was hoping his southern detour could pick up the trail, and so he remained alert.  
  
Neji and Shiren were unaware of Xi's motives, and did not bother to keep more than a cursory watch about them in this passage. Instead they spent the time talking, learning about each other's pasts, the different villages, and such things. Neji told Shiren about who he had been before encountering Uzemaki Naruto, expecting a harsh judgment from her, but she simply smiled and replied, "We all react to suffering in our own way, and we have all done horrible things." Neji had been hesitant to ask what Shiren considered the crimes of her past, but as he walked beside her in silence for a time, she told him the story, or at least a portion of it.  
  
"Eight years ago, after Lightning was shaken badly by our war, and Raikage-sama became the seventh to rule our village, there were consequences. Myself and others, we were told that our lessons at the academy would end, that we were not to be ninja." Shiren said the words sadly, but the hurt was old, and long passed away. "I wouldn't accept that, and I swore to become a ninja, but I didn't consider what that meant to others. I showed up at the academy one day, and demanded to be let into classes. They tried to throw me out, but I kept coming back. Eventually they let me in, but I was sat at the edge of every room, and always watched by the teacher, a constant distraction. I hurt everyone else by being present, for the teachers would not say things while I was there, would not teach properly. I held back a whole class without knowing it, that was the price I made lightning pay for my stubbornness." Shiren paused, and looked at Neji. "It is very easy to hurt others without knowing it, and without realizing that we know what we are doing and that we o so because we wish to punish them for our fates. We can only try our best to be aware, and to listen when they say things to us." She reached out and grabbed Neji's hand then. "I hope you can listen to what I say, Neji."  
  
Neji nodded softly, and held to Shiren's hand with his own, and they passed much of the rest of the afternoon in silence, walking close together.  
  
Xi, knowing what was going on behind him, had wondered about it. What do I do about this relationship? There was no easy answer. They are hesitant, but the relationship is obvious, that much I can see. Xi recalled that in the past he had been in a similar situation, perhaps. Yes, I can understand what is happening between them, but what do I do? I lost any chance at love eight years ago, so I do not know how to deal with this. Should I allow it? Encourage it? What? The dragon ninja tried not to brood on it, to remain focused on the matter at hand, but the difficulties were not so easily ignored. They are from two different villages, villages not even in alliance, indeed the last war was fought within their lifetimes, in a way they are both children of it. Can this romance be accepted? The matter was further complicated because the young pair behind him were the only two dragon ninja in the world. Xi simply did not know what to do, something he found disturbing. I was always too direct for this sort of thing, he decided. I suppose I will just have to wait and hope. Things are unstable for now, but perhaps there will be a catalyst.  
  
So Xi turned his attention back to the lands south of the road. Tomorrow we pass as close to grass country as we will ever, and then turn east and back to Konoha. So far there have been no leads, but the morning will likely bring a change.  
  
The morning dawned bleak and viscous, cloudy and miserable. It was a deep and dark cloud cover too, where there had been nothing the day before, and the skies to the north rumbled with the possibility of a storm. Xi got his charges up and moving quickly, not even bothering with a short morning training session, sessions that had come to seem increasingly futile. Shiren was on the cusp of learning Rend, and had begun learning Dragon Wind as well, but it would take a full day of solid work for her to master things at least. Neji was still stalled, and Xi was sure he knew the cause by now. He has turned away from the principles of the dragon ninja. It is that simple. He saw the destruction a dragon may wreak, and he almost killed Shiren, so he pushes that part of himself away. He thinks it is being kind, but Neji, you are mistaken. Denial of what you are cannot help you. Yet as before, Xi had few options. He could only try to force the issue somehow, but he did not wish to do so with Shiren around, and there were more important concerns.  
  
The clouds grew darker as the day wore on, and Xi grew uneasy. This is not natural, rain or snow should fall, but the sky is dry. There is something dangerous at work here. Neji and Shiren stood on their guard as well, not needing Xi to tell them that something was amiss. Close to midday it was dark as it would normally be in the late evening, and Xi cautioned the pair. "We are soon to pass by the intersection of roads. Even if this trick of weather does not concern us, that area is likely the center of any danger."  
  
They made the intersection shortly thereafter, an open meeting of dirt roads surrounded by copses of shrubby trees, in a basin between two hills. It was a likely spot for an attack. As Xi stepped into the crossroads the sky shook with thunder, and wind blasted all around him. Even as the dragon ninja reached for his nekode he heard a terrible voice carried upon the wind.  
  
"Stormheart Blackness no Jutsu!"  
  
The clouds suddenly grew black as night, blotting out all light and making everything as inky as pitch.  
  
Xi leaped aside, and heard Neji and Shiren do likewise. "Byakugan!" Neji spat, summoning his perfect sight. Shiren ripped loose a kunai and slammed it into the ground. There it took on a blue glow as charge crackled about it, giving the clearing and surrounding trees a lurid glow that provided just enough light to catch glimpses of metal and motion, as on a cloudy night. Xi felt the chakra surge about him, and he could feel the presence of many ninja, dozens. That did not disturb him much though, not like the jutsu that had just been used, a technique he recognized, though the voice that had used it was unfamiliar to him. It is not she, but who else would use that technique? Xi looked about carefully, tracking the swiftly moving ninja by minute sounds of their movement, and feeling for use of chakra. He felt many presences, and a potent one some distance away, but there was also something else, something Xi could not place. A summoned creature? He wondered, in the instant before things were decided for him.  
  
"Grass element: forest of nettles no Justsu!" A hideous voice cackled, and the three dragon ninja heard the horrifying results.  
  
Between the copses of trees that surrounded this intersection, and over the roads themselves, great vines and tendrils, covered in long and hideous thorns sprouted from the ground, growing so fast as to quickly clog off all routes away.  
  
"That voice..." Shiren began.  
  
"-Impossible." Neji finished.  
  
"Ha, ha ha!" The voice cackled from the south of them, and Neji, gifted with the Byakugan, was able to see it clearly. A tall figure, standing lightly upon the torrent of nettles he had summoned, a figure coated in thorns and with those long wooden weapons protruding from his very flesh. Tonetero!  
  
The grass ninja stopped his cackling for a moment, and then gasped and fell to the ground, his nettle support severed, and his body followed. A swarm of thorns flashed out to protect him below, but he could not move fast enough, and the attack was pointed at his head.  
  
"Back Rake!" Xi's feet flipped over in midair, so that they connected with Tonetero's head and neck even as the rest of his body remained below. Those feet walked down the back of the grass ninja's thorn-covered skull, driving their razor sharp awls of chakra into his body, perforating it with holes.  
  
"You shouldn't reveal yourself." Xi muttered, and then saw that no blood came out. "Damn!" He spat, and flipped up through the air, to land back in front of Shiren and Neji.  
  
"What's happening Xi?" They asked, having just seen the impossible occur. "How is he alive, what happened?"  
  
"We are surrounded by at least twenty-five grass ninja." Xi answered coldly. 'They have encircled us and block off any escape. Worse, one of the Akatsuki is here."  
"What?" Neji managed, still holding his guard ready, for he had seen the grass ninja moving in the trees, and was expecting attack.  
  
"Watch." Xi pointed at the body of Tonetero, and the three ninja observed a cloud of flesh that had been kicked out of his head slowly flutter back to his body and gradually close the wounds completely. Tonetero stood before them perfectly unharmed and laughing.  
  
"What is this technique?" Shiren whispered, the fear evident in her voice.  
  
"Edo Tensei." Xi snapped off the answer. "He has been brought back from the dead through the sacrifice of another. The body you see cannot be killed, only absolutely destroyed."  
  
"An excellent deduction, Draci Xi." The voice was harsh and villainous, and seemed to come from everywhere at once, something easily recognizable as a simple genjutsu. "Pity it won't help you."  
  
"You're the one then," Xi accused, ignoring the jibe. "The one who incited Waterfall, who recreated the Echiri bloodline in that insane boy, who has been trying to start a war."  
  
"And start a war I shall, even if it was not the one I originally intended." The Akatsuki said, speaking from everywhere and nowhere. "Your deaths will incite a conflict between grass and stone, and lightning will become involved as well. A few judicious incidents inflicted upon traveling lightning armies will be enough to start anew the war between Lightning and the Leaf. It is all very simple."  
  
"Humph, I recognize such scheming, it has all of her trademarks." Xi smiled with satisfaction. "Given what I know of the Akatsuki you must be the lesser member of her pair. Good, when I catch you I will learn all I need to track her down."  
  
"Such bravado." The voice laughed in sickening glee. "Not at all what I expected from the supposedly quiet dragon ninja. But you seem to be looking at this the wrong way; you are outnumbered, trapped, and faced with an enemy you cannot possibly kill. Your doom is sealed."  
  
Xi did not reply, he was considering his options. The Akatsuki has planned this trap too well, he thought. I could destroy Tonetero with dragon breath, but only if his defenses were swept away, such as when he is regenerating. With this many grass ninja present, and with you watching, Akatsuki, there is no time for such things. Xi considered this quickly and then made a decision. If victory is impossible...then. "Shiren, Neji, break north and go, do not stop until you are sure you are safe. I will stop them here and join you later. Now, go!"  
  
The other two responded immediately to his commands, and Xi himself blasted forward. Kunai and shuriken rained down from the trees, but Xi dodged and weaved among them expertly, avoiding the strikes, though he was forced to the side.  
  
Shiren ducked and slid upon the ground, and Neji reacted as he knew he must. "Kaiten!"  
  
The spin blasted away all the attacks, returning them among the original throwers, and Shiren escaped beneath them all, having anticipated his movements perfectly.  
  
Shiren leapt up immediately, heading toward the wall of nettles to the north, but she found her path blocked. Grass ninja, fifteen or more, had dropped from the trees and stood all about them. They held weapons ready and appeared quite skilled. Neji stood back to back with Shiren, considering their options. We're trapped. Neji thought.  
  
Xi lurched aside, and spun through the trees as he moved. His senses caught the movement of two grass ninja and he landed before them. They raised kunai, but his nekode slipped under their guard faster than they could react, the move going precisely where they believe he could not make it go. Nekode ripped into both, and Xi pulled them forward, pulling his weapons out and raking them over two throats in a single motion, even as he leapt up to avoid a hail of thorns that impaled the dying ninja. From the corner of his eye Xi saw Shiren and Neji surrounded, even as he spun away from another of Tonetero's attacks and slammed a kunai into a grass ninja's eyes. This is bad, very bad. I expected an ambush, but not this unkillable foe.  
  
"It seems things will not work out as you wished, Draci Xi!" The Akatsuki taunted.  
  
Damn it! Xi thought, dodging another attack. I could escape easily enough, but without me to occupy Tonetero Neji and Shiren will surely die, and the Akatsuki has yet to act. Damn it, there's no time to summon a dragon! Xi found himself at a loss for a solution, and he felt a stab of agony as he realized he was about to watch his students die.  
  
The Akatsuki's laughter carried over the black clearing, only to suddenly be overwhelmed.  
  
"Flare!"  
  
Brilliant light burst into the crossroads, blinding everything. Xi reacted instantly; even as his sight was taken, leaping backwards and crossing the path of a hesitant grass ninja. He cut the man down mercilessly, bringing rend through his chest. Catching a sudden sound he reacted to move onto the next.  
  
Tonetero howled, unable to see he was unable to direct his thorns, and the wailing corpse recognized its vulnerability.  
  
Neji and Shiren reacted to the blinding light differently. Shiren crouched down, holding her weapons ready, but unable to identify friend from foe over the sounds of melee.  
  
Neji, not blinded at all by virtue of his Byakugan, saw the whole instantly clearly.  
  
The cry of flare came from another ninja, and the blast of light surged from a ninja-to, the straight ninja sword, streaking into the clearing from above, to slice clean through one of the grass ninja surrounding them. The weapon was wielded by a ninja in the garb of Hidden Stone, a man that Neji recognized, once he could take his eyes of the sword.  
  
The blade that glowed now with the sun's own fire was not made of steel, but was a slim extension of transparent crystal, a blade that seemed as sharp as the chakra blades brought forth by rend. Blood flew free of the ninja that had been cut down, but none stuck to that crystalline sword.  
  
Neji blinked for a moment, something he never did, to keep the image of that weapon from burning into his mind. As his eyes opened again he saw the stone ninja, the young man Xi had named Kataishi Dar, cross to the next grass ninja in a single motion, sweep aside the blinded ninja's clumsy block, and cut a lethal arc across his body. Dar did not pause, but moved on to the next ninja.  
  
The sight galvanized Neji into motion, and he shot forward, slamming his palms into two grass ninja still trying to recover from the blindly attack. Neji brought his palms across, and though he could have smashed the chakra circulatory system over the heart, killed the vulnerable men, he hesitated, and then at the last struck blows to the lungs instead, knocking them to the ground gasping.  
  
The Akatsuki was not slow to react to this development. "All-illusion dispel!" The quickest and most thorough way to blast apart Dar's technique took down his own as well, but likely it seemed unimportant, except, that in that moment Xi tracked the Akatsuki's voice, and he knew.  
  
Above. A single instant was all Xi needed to take in the situation. "Dar cut them free and go!" He commanded. "I'll handle this."  
  
The stone chuunin did not pause, but slashed at another of the grass ninja. This one had a kunai in position to block, but Dar's crystalline blade cut through the weapon as if it were butter, and went on to score a deep gash in the man. Neji and Shiren joined the fight now, and the Grass ninja suddenly found the tables turned. It had been fifteen surrounding two, but now a mere eleven surrounded three, and those numbers went down again as Spark stars enveloped two of the ninja who had thought to dodge aside from Neji's crushing hands.  
  
Xi leapt up, his feet finding a solid tree branch and gathering enough chakra to rocket him skyward, slamming the branch free of its tree with a sickening crack and sending it to the ground even as he rose up.  
  
The dark-mantled Akatsuki stood poised on the highest tree branch, a tall, thin man who wore the forehead protector of Sand country, with a cruel slash through it. Long scars extended sideways from his eyes to wrap around his head, crossing over the ears and cutting a line through his inky black hair. Xi recognized him instantly. Mehize Kizen, the mummifier.  
  
Seeing the streaking Xi come towards him Kizen simply stepped aside, leaping to another treetop and pulling out his weapons.  
  
Wrong move, Xi thought with grim satisfaction, she didn't teach you enough. Chakra contorted in Xi's body, and he twisted in midair, suddenly moving in a completely different direction than he had been before, yet still closing directly at Kizen. Xi's hands, their sharp nekode extended, reached toward him.  
  
The Akatsuki pivoted, and slashed in with his own weapon, an effective maneuver to push his foe back, but Xi simply grabbed the kunai in his left hand, letting the sharp weapon cut straight down to the bone, ignoring the pain as he flipped the nekode free of his right hand and brought that hand forward.  
  
Two fingers tapped the Akatsuki's chest. "Dragon Fang!" Xi hissed, a tremendous blast of chakra scissored out from his fingers, punching in like a terrifyingly sharp drill, and not caring at all for the resistance of the flesh.  
  
A cylindrical hole exactly two inches wide emerged in the center of Kizen's chest, just as if he had been pierced by the razor fang of a dragon, and blood gushed from his mouth, but he managed to jump backwards, and his hands moved with a dying man's strength.  
  
Xi moved to follow, but a pair of Grass ninja came up from below at that moment. Xi flipped forward, spinning in the air, and coming out with both hands extended. "Dragon Wind!" He released the knotted torrents of chakra from his hands, slamming the full power of a dragon's passing into the grass ninja, shattering ribs and sending their broken bodies to slam into the ground with lethal force.  
  
Wasting no time, Xi looked up again, and what he saw horrified him. Mehize Kizen vomited a gob of flesh out of his mouth, and placed it on his chest, and that fleshy mass crawled into the hole Xi had made, sealing it as if new skin was growing there. Color returned to Kizen's face, and he gave Xi a hideous grin. "That was unpleasant, now I know why she hates you so much." Kizen leapt backward and was gone. Xi almost stepped forward to pursue, but recognized that he had other problems, and so turned back.  
  
What he saw confirmed his fears.  
  
Dar, Neji and Shiren had managed to defeat many of the grass ninja, but Tonetero had acted, sacrificing the others merely to buy time. As Xi watched endless vines, all covered in spiky thorns, shot out from the ground, enveloping the whole area where the three chuunin stood. Tonetero stood aside, hands holding the seal and a sphere of protective thorns whirling about him.  
  
The trio slashed and hacked at the vines, Dar's sword slicing them apart as nothing, Shiren's lightning charged weapons burning through great swaths, and Neji simply disintegrating the vines using his own chakra, but it could not last. Even as Xi turned to engage Tonetero vines curled themselves over Dar's left foot, and when he moved to slash them loose new vines grasped his sword arm, immobilizing him. Vines wrapped around Neji and Shiren in great torrents, submerging them under the sea of green as Tonetero laughed in hideous glee. Just as he lost sight of the stone ninja Xi saw Dar struggling to bring his hands together, attempting to form a seal.  
  
Goddamn you, undying monster, wasn't it enough to kill you once? Xi lunged down at the protective globe of thorns that enclosed Tonetero, slamming aside mercilessly a grass ninja who tried to stop him, using dragon's fang to blast a gaping hole in the man's shoulder. Xi brought his hands up in a familiar pattern of seals, and then brought his hands to his mouth, thumbs and pairs of fingers linked, and likewise spread. "Dragon breath no jutsu!"  
  
The hideous blast of lightning arced from Xi's mouth as if slamming down at the earth from the heavens. Tonetero's thorns moved to block it though, and even as the lightning incinerated its way through them more and more thorns moved into the path, hundreds of sharp wooden cinders fell away, burnt to nothing, it was not enough to block the titanic force of that chakra hungry dragon jutsu, but it was enough to slow the blast long enough that Tonetero simply stepped aside and it passed by harmlessly.  
  
"Bastard!" Xi howled, and he slammed into the standing corpse, raking kunai across his back and pushing him down to the ground. He knew it wasn't enough, but it bought at least a moment, a moment when that sea of green vines weakened.  
  
"Kaiten!" Neji screamed the jutsu and spun free of the vines, a circular tunnel of emptiness now stood in the middle of that sea of green.  
  
"Rose Facet Spin!" Like some viscous dicing blade the figure of Kataishi Dar slashed a great swath loose in a complex spinning pattern, and shot up into the air.  
  
Xi saw these two free themselves and he felt his breath quicken, but then his eyes seized over to the place where Shiren was bound.  
  
The remaining Grass ninja stood there, at least a dozen, and one held a figure wrapped in vines, the struggling form of Shiren.  
  
"No!" Neji screamed, and moved toward her. "Shiren!"  
  
Shiren gasped something that was lost in the shouts of the grass ninja and the hissing noise of Tonetero summoning the wall of thorns back to his body, far from defeated.  
  
Damn, damn, damn! They have her! Xi thought, but he could do nothing. There are too many, and nothing has been settled. "Neji, Dar, escape north, now!" He shouted, and followed his command with actions.  
  
"No!" Neji retorted. "I will get Shiren back!" He said this even as two more grass ninja, the two Neji recalled slamming to the ground only moments before, stood up and interposed themselves between him and those who were hauling Shiren away behind Tonetero's screen of thorns. She struggled, but was unable to make her arms move against those vines, and could do nothing.  
  
"Shut up Neji!" Xi demanded, hurling shuriken to scatter the Grass ninja. He hit the ground in front of Neji. "This battle is a loss, we must go."  
  
"No!" Neji said, his voice gone almost totally hollow. "I won't leave Shiren."  
There's no time for this. Xi pulled back him right hand, and slammed it into Neji's stomach, Neji, unaware of anything beyond Shiren's receding form, took the blow and collapsed forward. "Dar, cover me." Xi ordered, and grabbed Neji and leapt over the wall of vines and nettles.  
  
"Earth element: Pillars of Stone no jutsu!" Dar slammed the tip of his sword into the ground, and great spikes of stone sprang up in a wall before him, blocking the grass ninja from view. The spikes were not particularly strong or tall, but they were enough. Dar leapt after Xi quickly.  
  
Moments later the three ninja were passing hurriedly through the scrublands, traveling north in a zigzag pattern to avoid pursuit. Xi put Neji down, and the young dragon ninja almost mindlessly propelled himself forward, but his attention was elsewhere.  
  
Dar came up on the side of Xi. "My apologies for following you." He said quickly.  
  
"That's not important right now." Xi remarked. "Do you know a sheltered area near here?"  
  
"There is a boulder field on a hill to the north, I was tracking you from there earlier." Dar answered.  
  
"Then we will head there, discussion can wait." Xi said simply, but his face was grim. He looked over at Neji to his right. This is bad, too many things have happened today, and your failure Neji, is perhaps the most important of them. It seems this will be the moment of truth. Xi steeled himself then, forcing himself to harden his gaze and remember the eight years alone and his true mission. The memory of Mehize Kizen, the Akatsuki who served the one he sought, was more than enough. I will not be forgiven for this, Neji, but dragons are unforgiving. 


	34. A Frigid Pause

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Ah nothing like a cliffhanger to annoy the heck out of everyone reading the story. My apologies, though this wasn't a true cliffhanger (I mean, no one's between death and life or anything, well except Tonetero) and I do try to minimize them, but extending the chapter any further would have been ridiculous. Unfortunately the situation takes a few chapters to resolve (like 4), fortunately I have actually written them all in some mad frenzy of output, it's just a matter of editing and putting them up. This particular chapter covers a little less ground than I originally intended, but it expands on Dar's character and what's going to have to be done to resolve this.  
  
I recognize that its hard to review when I post new chapters so fast, but I encourage people to try, especially about the romance stuff (which is kind of the point of this plot arc).  
  
Anyway, thanks regardless!  
  
Hattuteline: Funny you should mention that eye trick, but at the risk of reducing the suspense a bit I'll say that one's going to simmer awhile. Regardless there are supposedly 21 dragon jutsu (I said so about a hundred thousand words ago) and I intend to gradually fill additional ones in as things proceed. And Xi taught Neji all of the eighteen jutsu he currently can't do.  
  
A Frigid Pause  
  
They land upon the pile of boulders hard, and tired. It is a miserable scraggle of rocks sticking up from the top of this hillside, none any taller than a man, but affording at least a view of the surrounding scrublands. The three ninja who land here are dissimilar, but all are tired and dirty with the stink and debris of battle. The eyes of two are focused and harsh, but they are inwardly confused, and turmoil is clear beneath the stony gazes. The other sees a world clouded, answering only to a single internal demand, one that absolutely must be met, but one that seems horrifying unreachable, and so distant now. His gaze drifts constantly south, but it is empty.  
  
Neji lands absently and Xi walks over to him as Dar looks about for any signs of pursuit. The dragon ninja's gaze is harsh and absolute. "You are pathetic, Draci Neji." The words are like a sneer, and Neji looks up at Xi with anger behind his blank eyes. "Perhaps I should not even call you by that. For over a month, since before the chuunin exam, you have not listened to me. You are denying what you are, denying that you are a dragon ninja, and instead acting like some weakling. You have no one but yourself to blame for Shiren's taking." Xi stopped there, and slashed a hand forward to cut off any protest. "You are not even worth my time right now. I will deal with you later. Don't move."  
  
Neji stared off blankly after Xi as the older ninja walked away, but though he felt the anger and hatred surge within him, he did nothing. The sense of loss was far too great.  
  
Dar turned to face Xi as the dragon ninja approached him, standing atop the highest of the stone outcrops. "There is nothing as far as I can see." He said.  
  
"Let me check." Xi's hands flashed through seals. "Dragon's Eye." He whispered, letting the dragon's vision close the distance, looking for any hint of fear far to the south, seeking to sense it. All was empty. Xi let the red gaze fall swiftly as he had called it. "It seems Tonetero is content with his hostage."  
  
"He expects you to come to him then?" Dar asked.  
  
"Perhaps, but that is not important at the moment." Xi replied. "There is more pressing business between the two of us, Kataishi Dar."  
  
"Oh?" Dar raised an eyebrow. "And what is that, Draci Xi?"  
  
"You followed us for a reason, and interceded upon our behalf, in a struggle that was not your own." Xi's gaze was dark. "Why?"  
  
"I'm certain you've guessed." Dar answered simply, showing no obvious emotion. "As for the battle, the lands were still Stone Country, the Grass ninja were invaders here, I acted as I deemed appropriate."  
  
"So you say." Xi looked at him. "I owe you a debt now, possibly a very great one." He looked at Dar, taking in the nondescript stone ninja, with his simple features and close cropped hair, and the straight and deadly sword he wore, the only thing that marked him out. "So, what is your price?"  
  
"Train me as a dragon ninja." Dar said without hesitation.  
  
Xi nodded silently. He had expected this demand, had finally determined a little about this strange Stone chuunin. "Why should I?" He asked anyway, even though he knew the answer.  
  
"You are already training a Leaf ninja and a Cloud ninja, why not a Stone? You need three to form a proper training group in any case. I have the skills necessary, and I have my reasons." Dar answered firmly, his face betraying nothing.  
  
He is different from the other two, Xi recognized, he understands this fully, even if his talents are lesser. The dragon ninja looked down at the sword Dar wore, knowing its true nature. Yes, he does have his reasons. "Very well, assuming you have the Tsuchikage's permission."  
  
"I do, you think that man would refuse this chance?"  
  
"Then very well, I will train you, but it will be on my time and by my rules." Xi said.  
  
"I accept." Dar said sternly. "Now, to the matter at hand."  
  
"Indeed." Xi looked over his shoulder, making sure Neji could hear them talking. "Do you have questions?"  
  
"How is that Tonetero creature alive?" Those were the first words to leave Dar's mouth.  
  
"Edo Tensei." Xi answered. "A forbidden technique, one developed by Mehize Kizen, the mummifier ninja of Wind Country. It takes the sacrifice of one person and uses their essence to bring back another, in power proportional to how potent the sacrifice is. The resurrected form must obey the creator, and cannot easily be destroyed. Of course, I doubt Tonetero requires much in the way on motivation to do what he is now."  
  
"How do you know so much?" Dar asked.  
  
"Orochimaru used the technique against the Third Hokage, I observed part of that battle, and questioned the ANBU afterwards. However, though Orochimaru might have refined it, Kizen, the master of dead manipulation jutsus, and an s-class criminal, developed the technique. Knowing that he is here, it makes sense for him to bring back Tonetero, since I am sure he was not supposed to die in the exam." Xi scowled. "Now he is even more dangerous than before."  
  
"So, you will go after him?" Dar asked.  
  
"No." Xi said loudly and clearly. Below them both Neji's head jerked up, and the shock was written clearly upon his face, only growing greater as Xi continued to speak in his deadpan tone. "My mission is to hunt the Akatsuki. Tonetero is not my problem; I am going after Kizen, who I suspect has gone northwest. He will abandon grass, as since you interfered the plan is a failure, and Tonetero's resurrection will make all nations work against them."  
  
"What about Shiren, your student?" Dar was incredulous, and Neji's shock was palpable in the silence that had followed Xi's words.  
  
"It's not my problem." Xi said coldly. "I am not going to invade grass country."  
"We must rescue Shiren!" Neji's words were desperate, hollow, and filled with longing. "We can't let her be taken like that!"  
  
"That is not a part of my mission." Xi replied, his voice like ice. "I have to follow Kizen, I will not loose this chance to break open the Akatsuki. I almost killed him there in the clearing, he is no match for me."  
  
"But Shiren-"  
  
"If you want to save her Neji, then you can do it yourself." Xi said simply. "I owe her nothing, it is not my problem."  
  
"Then I will!" Neji shouted, his eyes narrow.  
  
"How will you even find her?" Xi scoffed. "Even if you could," Xi continued, inwardly pained to say the words, but knowing their truth. He was a dragon ninja; there would be no exceptions. "As you are now you would accomplish nothing but your own death." Xi spoke the words and turned away, leaving Neji staring at his back. "I am going to scout the area." He told Dar. "I'll be back by nightfall."  
  
Dar nodded, unable to say anything.  
  
When Xi was gone the stone ninja looked down at Neji, glancing into those blank eyes for the first time. Looking down at him, Dar's expression was confused. "You are not curious?" He asked Neji.  
  
In truth Neji was curious, he had many questions about this strange stone ninja he knew nothing about, and yet who Xi had just agreed to teach. Was the debt so great that he would agree to such a thing, when he was so hesitant to allow Shiren? Why should this ninja be a dragon ninja? Yet Neji said nothing.  
  
Dar looked at Neji carefully, and then sat down cross-legged atop his stone. He pulled his scabbarded sword from his side, and held it up vertically in front of him. "At least, I will introduce myself." Dar said easily. "I am Kataishi Dar, chuunin of Hidden Stone."  
  
"Draci Neji, of Hidden Leaf." Neji answered automatically, but his speech was empty of feeling.  
  
"I suppose I should have expected that reaction." Dar muttered. "You're not a stone ninja, so you don't know who I am."  
  
"Are you so special that all ninja know you on sight?" Neji said, the slightest hint of mockery in his voice.  
  
"Heh." Dar chuckled. "As to be expected from someone of your talent. But, yes, I am that special, at least." Dar's right hand reached out and he pulled his sword free of its scabbard. "I bear this."  
  
In the quiet light of the cloudy afternoon Neji now saw the weapon clearly, a single razor sharp crystal, folded by forces he could not imagine into the perfect form of a sword. It was purely colorless, reflecting nothing but the flat light to shine with a quartz gleam. Even deadened as he was, Neji could not help but ask. "What is that weapon?"  
  
"This blade..." Dar paused. "It is called The Crystal That Pierces the Heart of the World." The name was lengthy and powerful, so Dar gave Neji a moment to absorb it. "It is an ancient weapon, considered by some the mightiest ninja sword ever made, one of the great heirlooms of Stone."  
  
"So why are you carrying it?" Neji mused. He could see Dar's strength, and while the ninja was talented, and had potential, he was not particularly remarkable. He has the control to be a dragon ninja, but only barely. He will never be as strong as Shiren. That thought immediately cleared any focus from Neji's mind beneath a cloud of grief.  
  
"Why?" Dar's visage grew dark, and his voice was sad. "I carry it because I am the only one who can. I am the sword's custodian, my family, the Kataishi clan; my grandfather was the half-brother of the last true bearer of the blade. He died without issue, and I am the last child of my clan, so the blade passed to me when my mother died."  
  
"All your family are dead?" Neji wondered.  
  
"From disease, cold, and accident," Dar spoke somberly. "Not the wars of the ninja. There were never many, I was the only child of my generation, a blizzard killed my father before I remember, and my mother died of disease when I was eight. Our family has had little luck in stone," Dar gave Neji a stern look. "But that is no concern of yours. It is the sword's fault."  
  
"What do you mean?" Neji asked Dar, confused both by the ninja's words and his own disinterest.  
  
"No one in my family can properly bear this blade, we have only half the lineage to awaken its true powers. In my hands it is little more than an especially sharp blade that will never break, and a channel for my jutsus, nothing more. The blade wishes to have its true powers wielded once more, but it will turn in the hands of anyone without the blood to wield it." Dar sighed. "There are no easy answers for this weapon, but should I perish it will become useless for a long time, until someone gains the strength to bind themselves to it once more. Tsuchikage-sama would probably rather I die so that might happen sooner, but so far I have no obliged him."  
  
"If you have such a weapon, why do you want to be a dragon ninja?" Neji wondered aloud, considering Dar to be very strange, even as he acted so simply normal.  
  
"In many ways I already am a dragon ninja, Draci Neji." Dar replied without intonation. "This weapon I bear has but one purpose, to kill men. So no matter what techniques I learn that is still the path I will take, since I cannot rid myself of the weapon. So, since the dragon ninja are the last true path of ninja who kill, I should join them. It is my own choice to not deny what I am, that is all."  
  
"What do you mean?" Neji wondered, thinking Dar quite insane.  
  
"I would think you know the answer, dragon ninja, after all, you know what it is like to be a killer." Dar replied. "Xi understood my reasons, he accepts them."  
  
"I am not Xi!" Neji spat back.  
  
"No, you're right." Dar mused. "You're not him, you surpass him."  
  
"What do you mean?" Neji's anger spilled over then, and the words were a bare face accusation, his muscles tensed. I am not like Xi! He thought.  
  
"The former record for the fastest victory in the chuunin tournament of Stone was ten seconds, and was held by me. I defeated my opponent with a single draw-cut, and yet I had to step aside from the initial attack, you beat my mark by a full two seconds." Dar said, and he held his eyes to Neji's blank pupils, forcing the dragon ninja to listen to him. "Do you think with your skills, your abilities, that you are less of a dragon ninja than Xi? Your potential is above his, he practically told me himself, you could have blocked the Thunder and Lightning strike, a move that to my knowledge no other ninja has ever successfully deflected. Tsuchikage watched you fight with dread in his eyes, and yet you're sitting here like this."  
  
"I will get Shiren back!" Neji hissed. He knew he would, he absolutely had to, and there was nothing else worth doing if he didn't.  
  
"How are you going to do that then?" Dar asked simply. "Do you have a plan, or did you expect Xi to do it for you?" The words were harsh, but Dar's gaze was not the viscous attack that Xi's had been. "You completed the second exam, you led a team, I know you can plan, so have you come up with one?"  
  
No, I have not. I need to get Shiren back, and I have done nothing about it. Neji looked at Dar, and refused to admit that to him. I will not allow this stone ninja to talk to me as if I am a child. "I would need to know where she is first, but I have no way to know where she was taken."  
  
"So?" Dar wondered. "You seem to think Xi would have had a plan, your skills are the same as his, what would he have done?"  
  
Though Neji didn't like it, Dar's words forced him to think. They were enough for him to realize that to get Shiren back he would have to do something. It is hopeless without Xi's aid, but I have to try something, anything. Neji thought for a moment. I cannot go to the south, the area is too large, and I don't know the country. I'd need at least a map to even begin. A map...Neji looked at such a thing in his mind's eye, and realized the situation. To see from above-.  
  
Instantly Neji's hands formed into seals, and he recalled the forms that he had used only twice before: Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle. He brought his left hand slowly to his face and bit the index finger. He then placed his hands on the ground, gathering to gather chakra. "Dragon summoning no jutsu!"  
  
Sigils and runes burned themselves into the stone, spreading out from Neji's hands, and a blast of air spawned from chakra surged all around. Dar had to slam his sword into the stone to prevent from being knocked backwards, and he looked on in shock when his vision cleared.  
  
A brilliant creature hung in midair, long and slender, with a whiskered mane and rainbow colors, its back topped with a grand fin. This was the Shen Lung, Sirachi.  
  
Dar's jaw dropped when he saw the dragon. "This is a dragon?" He gasped.  
  
Sirachi ignored the Stone ninja; his alien eyes bore deep into Neji's own, searching there, projecting their horrible message of fear.  
  
Neji felt the fear hit him like a struck blow, every bit of it forcing to recall the image of Shiren dragged away while he did nothing to stop it, the raw ache when he considered the possibility that she might be dead, one that he had refused to consider up until now. He collapsed to his knees slowly, desperately trying to fight that fear, but failing. I have to get Shiren back! Neji remembered dimly, and he forced himself to recall that everything those horrible eyes were showing him would come to pass if he failed. With that much he managed to raise his head and stare through his tears at Sirachi.  
  
"Weak." The dragon commented, a thin thread of contempt in its voice. "This is what has become of the one who summoned Wusashu?" Sirachi tossed his mane. "Pathetic. Yet, you have resisted the fear, so I am bound to serve. Name your request."  
  
"Save Senirai Shiren." Neji said hauntingly.  
  
"I cannot do that," Sirachi replied. "It is beyond my power. I am messenger, not a warrior."  
  
"Then find her at least." Neji almost begged. "I need to know where she is."  
  
"This much I will do." Sirachi replied. "However, know that you will receive no further help from the dragons upon this task, and you will owe me for this. The rest, you must do yourself." Sirachi tossed ran a claw through his whiskered beard. "I had thought you were more than this, Draci Neji, regardless, I will return with news in the morning."  
  
Sirachi dashed off to the south, carried with the speed of the wind, faster than the eye could follow, a blur of color that vanished in moments.  
  
"That was a dragon?" Dar asked Neji, awe in his voice.  
  
When Neji nodded Dar looked down at his hands. "Perhaps I have undertaken more than I expected. Yet he said you would have no further aid."  
  
"Ah." Neji replied. "It seems hopeless, Xi will not help and neither will the dragons. I must get Shiren back, but how? Attack a fortress of Grass ninja by myself?"  
  
The desperation was so deep in Neji's voice that Dar felt a great deal of sympathy for the younger ninja. "I did not think you could be so close to someone who almost killed you, it seems I was wrong." He commented. "Since we are both going to be dragon ninja together, and you are my superior at least by seniority, I will offer you a favor."  
  
Neji looked at Dar curiously.  
  
"If you can get Xi's permission to go after Senirai Shiren, then I will go with you." The Stone ninja said firmly.  
  
"You would aid me?" Neji asked.  
  
"Freeing the lightning girl and defeating that dead man will have to be your task, and that must be your plan." Dar said. "But I will cover your back. The grass ninja did invade Stone, they should be punished for that, our roads are not free for them to prey upon like bandits." Dar gave Neji a slight smile as he explained the excuse.  
  
"I thank you." Neji said the words slowly, as if they were torn out of him. "It seems more likely we can all go and die together."  
  
"Bah." Dar shook his head. "If you fight as I am certain you can, this should be easy."  
  
Neji looked away, unable to answer that comment. When he felt Dar fall silent and turn away, he finally managed to look at his thoughts. He knew he had to get Shiren back from Tonetero. I cannot do this without her, he realized. It seems so obvious. Looking at it this way Neji was forced to acknowledge something he had kept from himself. I am in love with Shiren. How frightening. Neji did not know how to react to that realization, he did not think he understood love. Indeed, he believed he was in love with Shiren because he suspected that was how others would describe it. He did not love his family, his friends, anything like that. There were those he respected, such as his sensei Gai, Gosain, and even Xi, though that was now clouded by anger, but love? Neji couldn't quite comprehend it. Yet, what else could it be? Shiren is more than a friend, and she is attractive, and even, he allowed himself to remember with trepidation, she kissed me once.  
  
Neji hung his head in his hands then, hopelessness washing over him. Do I learn this now only to lose her forever? Taken away by the grass ninja and a monster that is already dead? Why won't you help me Xi? Neji couldn't reason it out, and furthermore, he couldn't understand how this was his fault. He had built his life on always doing that which was required of him. He had become the strongest ninja possible to satisfy his family, he had gone with the mission against the sound to satisfy his duties, he had accepted becoming a dragon ninja because he believed that was his place, and he had led his team to victory in the chuunin exam. How have I failed? Because I failed to learn the new jutsus quickly? Surely that is not it, Xi said it took him a year and half, and I am so very close already. What is the problem?  
  
Though he tried to think through it Neji found his thoughts constantly blocked by images of Shiren, both happy ones where he saw how close they truly were, and horrifying images of her in the hands of Tonetero, a foe who could not possibly hate her more, since she had killed him. So Neji just lay there, silent and teary, while the stony image of Dar watched the clouds pass by.  
  
Finally, as night was falling, Xi returned. He settled quietly in among the stones. "Any problems Dar?" He asked the stone ninja, continuing to ignore Neji.  
  
"Nothing." Dar answered as briefly as he could.  
  
"Fine. The grass ninja departed south, that much I could see. They hid their trail in the pasture lands well though, and I did not try to follow." Xi paused, and his eyes closed to slits and his gaze became predatory. "Kizen took a horse northwest, and he has passed us by, the tracks show a creature ridden to death, one that got up again and kept running even after it collapsed. He is out of reach for now, but his path leads only one way: Hidden Waterfall."  
  
"So you are leaving?" Dar asked.  
  
"In the morning, yes, we will travel back to Konoha as fast as we can. I need to alert Tsunade. With her aid enough forces can be gathered to intimidate Waterfall and give me a chance to catch Kizen. That Akatsuki is not foolish enough to expose himself." Xi's eyes gleamed with eagerness. "But I will catch him."  
  
"Could he not have companions?" Dar mused aloud. "Such as he had here?"  
  
"No doubt he will." Xi answered. "That is why I am going to Tsunade, but the real threat, that fool's master, she will leave him to die when he tells her that I almost killed him."  
  
"This Akatsuki fears you that much?"  
  
"No, Dar." Xi replied. "She fears nothing, but if found not only I, but a thousand ninja will ready their weapons and hunt her down. That is enough."  
  
"So we leave in the morning." Dar confirmed.  
  
"I am not leaving." Neji said from below, standing up. "I will not abandon Shiren."  
  
"What will you do?" Xi asked mockingly. Have an answer Neji, please, he thought, though his face remained stone. Offer some option, I will need a lever.  
  
"The dragon, Sirachi, will bring word of her location in the morning." Neji replied.  
  
"You summoned a dragon?" Xi could not keep the shock out of his voice. You're still alive Neji, I can hardly believe it. That is good; perhaps I have a chance to save both you and Shiren. "Fine. We will hear what Sirachi says in the morning. Regardless of what he says, I am not going to save Shiren."  
  
Neji seemed to deflate, but he only nodded.  
  
"Both of you, rest, there is no time to waste." Xi said.  
  
As he unpacked his bedroll Neji noticed that the deep cut on Xi's hand, which he had seen as the dragon ninja carried him north, was almost completely faded. He heals that fast? Neji wondered. It was with that glimpse that Neji realized just how driven Xi was to find his target. But I will not give up, I will save Shiren! He swore the oath to himself before he let sleep take him. 


	35. One Irrevocable Step

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Another day, another chapter. Thus begins the massive experiment in which will break first, my fingers, my sanity, or perhaps the story will reach its end. However, I'm finding that things continue to accelerate without letup, and I can't stop or stay away from the story, my brain practically bursts when I try. Here we move toward the resolution of the Shiren situation, and some key developments.  
  
By the way, I wonder what people think of Dar's appearance in the story? I know it was kind of sudden, but there were reasons for it, and I tried to foreshadow as best I could.  
  
My thanks to anyone who has the time to squeeze out a review!  
  
One Irrevocable Step  
  
In the morning Sirachi returned.  
  
It was cold and grim in the morning, and a soft mist, almost cold enough to be snow, was falling. The three ninja were up before dawn, and each took a boulder as his own post. Xi stared to the northwest, to Konoha, the mountains, and eventually far off Hidden Waterfall. Dar was looking south, but often turned to glance back north, to the mountains, and spent most of his time glaring at his crystalline sword, secure in its scabbard once again. Neji looked nowhere but south, and so they waited.  
  
The dragon was recognizable first as nothing but a streak of color, resembling an itinerant wisp of cloud, but one that moved faster than any bird a man had ever seen. He came streaking in with a howling gust of wind behind him, the messenger returning his report.  
  
Sirachi streaked up to the boulder without losing any speed, moving so fast it seemed he would slam straight into Neji and obliterate both the ninja and much of the rock he stood upon. At the last moment Sirachi spun in midair, coiling upwards and rising high, before coming back down again. His great head now faced Neji.  
  
"What is the word honored Sirachi?" Neji asked, his head bowed, only now remembering the forms he had utterly forgotten the day before.  
  
"Senirai Shiren lies in a small wooden outpost perhaps forty kilometers south, at least a day's travel from this place. If you go straight south and then follow the river southeast you will find where she is hidden." Sirachi answered.  
  
"Thank you." Neji said, and he meant it. "Is there any task I might undertake for you in return?" Neji asked.  
  
"Indeed." Sirachi stared at him with alien eyes. "Perhaps, if you survive the recovery of this Shiren, the one who is to become a dragon ninja, then there is a task."  
  
"What is that?" Neji asked, and he saw that Xi was watching him closely.  
  
"In time you will go to Hidden Waterfall. There is a man there named Mizain Yuki. You must speak to him before you enter the village, and you must accept his request." With that Sirachi fell silent.  
  
"You may go, honored Shen Lung." Neji managed through his shock. Accept the request of a Mizain? He would demand my head! What does the dragon mean? Neji thought about it, and then decided it didn't matter. The only important thing now is to go and get Shiren back. I know where she is now.  
  
"I am going to get Shiren then." Neji said aloud. "Since I know where she is." He stepped off the boulder and began walking.  
  
Draci Xi stood in front of him. "No you are not." The dragon ninja said, and his command was absolute.  
  
"What!" Neji hissed. "I am going to save her, with or without you, Xi."  
"I said you would not." Xi replied. "You are my student, I am your sensei. My command is absolute. You will obey, or you will lose the right to call yourself a ninja."  
  
Neji heard the words, but could not believe them. No longer call myself a ninja? He repeated the cold phrase, with every bit of Xi's resolve behind it, and he knew that the older ninja spoke the truth. He would have to obey, anything else was rebellion, he would no longer be a leaf ninja, but a missing-nin. I cannot do that, but I cannot abandon Shiren. Neji saw her face then, and he knew she would not accept him becoming a missing-nin, even to save her. Yet, I swore I would, and Xi is not going to stop me. "You cannot demand that of me, I swore I would save her." Neji replied, the anger boiling in his voice.  
  
"Yet I have demanded it." Xi replied. "I will not take back that statement. As long as you are my student, I will not allow it."  
  
"Then release me!" Neji yelled. "I don't care to be a dragon ninja if it costs me Shiren's life."  
  
"No." Xi said, and his voice was stone cold. "I will not allow a half- trained dragon ninja, able to use some of the techniques but not truly part of the way, not a dragon, to exist. I will kill you first Neji." Xi's eyes narrowed, and Neji could tell that the older ninja was serious.  
  
"Then what am I supposed to do?" Neji hissed, anger and hatred guiding him, a cold fury that he had last felt when he almost killed Hinata during his first Chuunin exam, and when he had seen Naruto stand up after being struck down again and again.  
  
"There is only one way to get your wish, Draci Neji." Xi answered. "The moment you cease being my student you are no longer bound by my orders. If you can prove that you are fully a dragon ninja, you may make your own choices."  
  
"What does that mean?" Neji barked. "Do I have to demonstrate jutsus I have failed time and again to complete?"  
  
"NO!" Xi howled, he continued in a voice terribly low, but filled with power and energy. His body sank backwards, and his feet spread apart, falling smoothly into the Jinnen fighting stance. "To prove what you are, you must defeat me."  
  
Neji went totally silent from the shock.  
  
"Denial means nothing, Neji." Xi continued. "You have the power to defeat me, you know all the dragon jutsus, you can do them all, your chakra is more than sufficient, your skill great, and your eyes grant you a superior edge. If you fight as a dragon ninja, with the true strength of What You Are, then I cannot win."  
  
"What do you mean?" Neji said, confused.  
  
"You are a Dragon Ninja!" Xi bellowed. "You know it, and I know it, you have denied what you are for too long. You are trying not to accept the person you are. You are a ninja who kills, Draci Neji. You wield the power of lethality that is the essence of the dragon, the absolute force that claims no half-measures, offers only life or death. You have shrunk away from that, but it is who you are." Xi went on, his voice not moderating in the slightest, as Neji blanched before him. "You have made the critical choices, you have acted to kill, I know, you summoned a dragon and eliminated those who fought you. Horrifying, yes, perhaps it was, but you cannot deny that it was you who did it! Whether by the hands of Wusashu or your own, the decision that those ninja must die was yours! That is not evil, it is simply what we are, the absolute. Shiren knows it, Dar knows it, even you know it, but until you accept that in yourself you are the pathetic thing that stands before me."  
  
"What do you want from me?" Neji retorted, his voice hollow.  
  
"I want you to accept the person you are, to recognize and embrace something you accepted months ago. Only then can you beat me." Xi gave Neji his final words, walling away all the mercy within him, pulling the mask over his face once again, even though it lay ready on his leg still. "This is not a test Neji, this is absolute. I will not hold back, but fight you with my full force. You must defeat me, or die here, on this empty hilltop. Now, guard yourself!"  
  
Neji saw the twitch of Xi's limbs, and in that instant reflexively fell into the Jyouken stance, the Byakugan embracing his sight.  
  
It was all the warning he had.  
  
Xi attacked instantly, his assault utterly swift, and targeted with absolute perfection.  
  
Neji blocked the blow, but he was already behind, and when Xi rained another and then another attack down at him even his eyes could not keep up with the hideous rapidity. Finally one blow broke through, and sharp fingers dug into Neji's shoulder, and he skidded back in pain.  
  
"Pathetic." Xi spat, grasping a breath of air. "That is all you can muster. Where is your focus, your energy?" The dragon ninja reached down and pulled on his nekode. "You had best do better."  
  
Neji pulled out his own nekode, and raised them to guard.  
  
Xi leapt upwards, and Neji moved to counter. Why is he doing this? Neji didn't understand, could only attempt to defend as Xi knocked his nekode away, moving faster, better than he could predict. It's like fighting Gai, Neji recalled, remembering the one time his sensei had fought him. But this was not brilliant speed and Gai's tremendous strength, no this was the absolute effect of Xi's chakra control, honed to perfection from a month in snow and ice. This was the man who could hold himself upside down on the pinpoint of an icicle and then project chakra with enough precision to melt his way upwards even as he remained stuck. Every blow was targeted precisely, and every block Neji made, no matter that he could see every attack, was insufficient. Xi's attacks were so honed that the dragon ninja put full strength behind them, while Neji desperately attempted to block them, even as each successive blow made his position worse and worse, and he could regain nothing against that assault, there was no way to counter such moves.  
  
Xi's nekode raked across Neji's leg then, cutting a long and wretched gash before he could manage to block, and when Neji attempted a counterstroke Xi was already out of position. "This is the boy who fought Kidomaru, and though out positioned and outgunned managed to win? Where is the innovation, the genius, and the ruthlessness? You had two gaping holes in your side when I found you next to that corpse. Were you a better dragon ninja then than now?" Xi's mockery was harsh, and Neji wondered if the dragon ninja was toying with him. No, those strikes are not a joke, they are absolutely serious. Only my eyes and endless practice have kept me alive even so far, and already my strength is waning. How am I supposed to beat him?  
  
Neji dodged away, trying to create some space, but the effort was futile, Xi was after him instantly. Neji leapt high, careening off one of the upright stones to swiftly change direction, hoping to avoid the older ninja.  
  
"Aerial reversal!" Xi used the first jutsu then, pulling a complete turn in midair, and hurling incredibly swift kunai at Neji.  
  
There was only one option. "Kaiten!"  
  
The kunai struck the spin, and Neji felt his motion instantly stopped dead, the power of his spin resisted for and eternal second, and he could see the kunai hovering there, stuck against the force of his chakra, boring in.  
Then they passed through.  
  
The two metal points smashed into Neji, driving a great distance along the ground, before he struck a scraggily tree hard. The kunai had been slowed, so they did not have the force to kill, but he now had two deep punctures in his side.  
  
Standing against the tree, gasping for breath, Neji watched Xi advance. In a moment of pain the Byakugan slipped from his eyes. Xi was like some dark blue god of death advancing upon him, and Neji saw no way to stop him. Is this my fate? To die at my teacher's hands? I am a failure.  
  
So it has come to this, Xi thought, as he advanced, his nekode held ready, the blades of chakra already formed in his mind. Either it is done here, or it is all rended unto nothing. "You loved Shiren didn't you." Xi said in a voice devoid of humanity, one not his own, but that Neji heard as the unearthly voice of the dragons, the melded words of Sirachi and Wusashu. "She surely loved you in return, and yet, you will die here." Xi's head snapped up and he stared Neji directly in the eyes. "And yet you will betray her, and die by throwing away that love and forgetting who you are, and what LOVE IS WORTH!"  
  
Neji's eyes snapped back into the Byakugan, he did not know from whence the terrible vision came, but he heard Xi's words, and he analyzed them in a single unfragemented instant. Shiren loves Draci Neji, not Hyuuga Neji. That was the first step. I would die before betraying her, he recalled, and he recognized what his heart had been trying to tell him for sometime. She has killed for me, and I will kill for her. That is how we protect each other.  
  
Three Hundred and Sixty degrees revealed themselves to Neji, and he focused on the small pocket of that occupied by Draci Xi.  
  
Xi charged. The barest hint of tears could be seen in his eyes.  
  
"Rend!" Neji's nekode slammed into the ground, and it cracked apart beneath Xi's feet, a torrent of destruction that spilt the hilltop and sent boulders flying aside.  
  
Xi and Neji leapt above it, to meet in midair. Nekode struck nekode, blades of chakra projecting from both, and the weapons slashed each other to no effect, but Neji manipulated the chakra then, forming hooks instead of blades, his eyes guiding him to separate the form from that of the nekode, and ripped the nekode free of Xi's hands.  
  
The older ninja's hands slapped across Neji's arms but the pain was instantly channeled away, past his thoughts. His hands snapped down and grabbed kunai, two in each hand, sitting between the fingers. Chakra flowed into the weapons, from the fingers, a complex and ever-shifting pattern, so that they vibrated and waved about in the tiniest of increments, hissing through the air with the sound of water shearing through rock. "Dragon Spines!" Neji brought the weapons in toward Xi.  
  
The older ninja was too close to dodge aside, and without weapons his arms and legs could not block this attack, the kunai would slice through any obstacle and cut so deep they buried themselves in the victim.  
  
"Enough!" Four kunai, two from the left and two from the right, slammed into something they could not break, not flesh or steel, but diamond hard crystal.  
  
Dar's sword hung between the two dragon ninja. "Enough! You two are not enemies!" Dar said, his own breath ragged, the skin on his palms burned from the speed with which he'd drawn his weapon.  
  
The three ninja crashed back to the ground, and stared at each other. Dar looked at both of them, but Xi and Neji focused only on the other.  
  
"So you win Neji." Xi said. "Now, do you see that you don't need my help to save Shiren?"  
  
"Xi." Neji let a tremendous amount of feeling out in that single syllable. Xi saw Neji's eyes, and he saw that Neji understood what Xi had done, how he had forced the issue. "From this point forward, we owe each other nothing."  
  
No forgiveness, though it was your fault in the first place Neji. Don't worry, I understand. That is the price we pay. "As you wish." Xi answered. "I assume Dar is going with you." Xi did not wait for Neji to nod. "Very well, we will meet in Konoha before the week is out."  
  
Neji nodded, and Xi turned and began to walk northwest. "Bring Shiren back Neji." Xi said over his shoulder. "You are not allowed to fail anymore."  
  
"I will bring her back." Neji replied. "Be absolutely certain of it."  
  
Dar slid down beside Neji. "Now what?" The stone ninja asked.  
  
Neji was silent for a moment, as he pulled loose kunai and wrapped the bandages from his arms about those and his gash. "We go south, and free Shiren tonight."  
  
"With those injuries?" Dar asked.  
  
"They are already healing, I have enough chakra to spare." Neji replied, and he knew that was the truth, as violent as the fight with Xi had been, they had used up only a small portion of their reserves. "And we will not go quickly."  
  
Dar looked at Neji's injuries carefully, but said nothing more. When Neji turned and started walking, he followed. 


	36. Choices in the Darkness

Author's Notes: A chapter a day...probably gives the Mechalich carpal tunnel, but I'll survive. I expect this pace to continue for some time to come anyway, since I'm far ahead in the writing of chapters posted. This chapter is pretty involved on a lot of levels, so hopefully its good.  
  
Thanks for reviews!  
  
Orhla: The eye trick is certainly powerful, killing people by looking at them is kind of ridiculous, but it has its weaknesses, since you have to stand there motionless to do it.  
  
Choices in the Darkness  
  
In many ways it was like a nightmare, being taken from a binding sea of nettles that scratched and cut every exposed surface, and then standing in the open, surrounded by fourteen grim grass ninja, and a man who should be dead.  
  
Tonetero was a shocking thing for anyone to see, but for Shiren, who could still almost feel the kunai driving into the heart of the grass ninja, who recalled seeing the light leave his eyes as he fell to the ground, it was far worse. When the grass ninja stripped her of her weapons, even those she kept carefully hidden, and tore her clothes in the process, leaving them barely covering her, so that she shivered in the cold, Shiren could hardly bear it. She wanted to scream, to run, but she dared not. The thorns swirled around Tonetero like angry hornets, threatening to sting anything that moved.  
  
Shiren could see the grass ninja tremble in fear around their dead companion, but they brought her before him, and she watched in horror as Tonetero's mouth split wide in a gleeful smile. "Well, even if we failed to catch the whole bunch, I'm more than satisfied with just you. I remember you see, I can recall the pain, the hurt you caused me, oh it stung like nothing you can imagine, dying."  
  
"I thought the dead didn't talk." Shiren managed.  
  
"Ha!" Tonetero laughed. "A retort, you have spirit, a whole lot more than these fools around you, who managed little more than dying today. I will enjoy getting rid of you, of I will." His tongue flicked out of his mouth. "The thorns provide so many interesting ways to kill."  
  
"Tonetero-sama." One of the grass ninja dared. "We were ordered not to kill her until the Akatsuki made a copy of her body, so that the lightning would not start a war."  
  
"Damn the Akatsuki!" Tonetero spat. "I don't see him here. He's run off, scared of that ridiculous dragon ninja, Xi."  
  
"A man who, if you lived, would have killed you twice over." Shiren remarked.  
"Very true." Tonetero replied gleefully. "It's good to be dead then, I'm almost grateful to that Akatsuki bastard, and if I could kill you now, I think I would be." He looked at Shiren with a dark grimace. "Well, I guess that just gives me more time to plan your demise." He turned to the grass ninja. "Bind her and let's go."  
  
They departed southward.  
  
Tonetero was in high spirits, so they did not go very fast, instead taking shifts caring Shiren, who was heavier than she looked, being well muscled. At nightfall they arrived at their destination.  
  
It was not an auspicious place, a small set of buildings outlined by a wooden palisade, a simple and defensible structure. "Not much you think?" Tonetero jibbed at Shiren. "It one of our war outposts, in case of problems, or in this case, opportunities. It might not be a walled hidden village, but this is enough to make rescue much more difficult."  
  
Yes, so it is. Shiren noted with dismay. The fort was placed on level ground, and the area around it had been cleared, affording no good approaches. There were braziers where signal fires could be lit, alerting everyone within the fort, and likely another two in a chain, in case reinforcements were needed. Shiren did not despair, she had refused to consider that an option, but neither did she hope much. Perhaps Neji or Xi will come, and I wish for it dearly, but I cannot rely on them. Besides, with this one here, even if they came, I dread what would happen. So Shiren steeled herself for what was to come, and allowed Tonetero to lead her within.  
  
He took he to a small side building, one that looked like nothing special from the outside, but that led down underground. "The soils are deep here, so it is easy to tunnel." He led her down a set of spiral stairs, into a dark and dismal hall, lit only by a few flickering candles. The two grass ninja carrying Shiren cut her bonds, and then, after checking her for weapons once again, passed her off to a thickly built ninja, obviously the guard.  
  
That one shoved her into an earthen cell, and then drew metal bars across it.  
  
"There is ten feet of soil between you and anything else, and these bars block all use of chakra through them, so no jutsu you try will get you out." Tonetero explained as the guard locked the bars in place. "Now, as for your fate, well, it's sort of a gamble. If the Akatsuki bastard gets back before I decide how I want you to die, well, you get to go quickly, but he copies you body and uses it against your village. If he doesn't get back before my mind is made up, well, then I get to kill you my way." Tonetero laughed again. "Looks like either way, you lose." He turned to walk away, and then stopped, in a move that Shiren could tell was calculated to work against her will. "Oh, and don't think rescue is a possibility. There are twenty Grass chuunin in all here, and myself in this quite defensible position, and I will certainly have you killed if we are threatened. Have a good night."  
  
When he was gone Shiren slumped against the earthen wall of her cell silently. "Who would have thought a dead man would talk so much." She muttered to herself. Still, taking stock of her situation Shiren couldn't doubt that it was bad. She tired a simple jutsu on the bars, but that failed. It seems he was telling the truth. Even if I could get through the bars I'd have to deal with the guard. She thought about what she could do. I'm not skilled enough to seduce him, and besides, I'm sure this man was chosen carefully to guard against that. Faking wounds will not help; Tonetero does not care at all for my welfare. For tools, only the remnants of my clothes, my forehead protector and weapons are on the guard's table.  
  
Shiren sighed. No choice but to hope for rescue. She did not like that, it was a forlorn hope, and even if it came Tonetero would certainly carry out his threat to kill her. I could try to resist when they came, but that won't work, I know no jutsus to attack directly. If I had the nekode Xi made me I could try to rend the bars, but without a focus I'll never get the jutsu to work.  
  
Feeling her hope fade, Shiren considered her options. I will not let Tonetero kill me, she decided, nor this Akatsuki man steal my body. I will find a way to kill myself before they do so.  
  
Yet she refused to give up that easily. There must be something, even if I have only my clothes; perhaps there is something I can do. She sat down calmly and tried to think about it. Neji, help me. Shiren thought. You escaped them, I want to see you, not die like this.  
  
In the dark of night a slim figure moves about the battlefield where grass ninja and Akatsuki fought dragon ninja and stone. The area is despoiled and overrun, with the fallen and browned leftovers of Tonetero's jutsu lying there. Impermanent, how like him, or perhaps it's because he's dead.  
  
I still don't believe it, Aburanki Kei thought, that they brought him back somehow. She recalled the moment, only hours after she returned to Grass village, a strange pair of figures had walked into the town, wearing dark cloaks with red markings. They had radiated a deadliness she associated with no one from her village, so Kei watched them carefully, though she could tell they were watching her as well.  
  
One left grass without doing anything save give instructions she could not here to the other, but the other one, he met the head ninja. I cannot believe that woman agreed! Kei thought in anger. Why! Tonetero had already failed; he was killed in the exam, killed when he was supposed to triumph. Everyone agreed the plan was a failure, they made me a chuunin, I heard the councils. Yet she agreed to this one's mad plan. She took Doshiyre Masan, my teammate, a fool sure, but still my teammate, and gave him to that monstrous man to bring back another monster.  
  
The moment Tonetero cackled back into his sickening semblance of life Kei left the village, not daring to be present with him around. She followed his movements though, hoping she could learn what was planned, find a way to still serve her village and yet avoid the madness affecting it. Have I become a rogue? Kei wondered as she walked upon the battlefield. No! She swore. I still serve my village; it is just that our leader has let the madman fill her mind with dreams of grandeur that will bring our deaths.  
  
Everywhere about the battlefield was destruction, from the plants that had been ripped apart and shredded, to the bodies of the grass ninja, eleven in all, left to lie in the sun and be prey for the scavengers. Kei moved about each in turn, taking at least the time to pile vines over them, offering what protection she could. Then she came to a body that was different.  
  
The man lay in a mass of nettles, his chest was crushed and he bleed from ragged wounds, but Kei saw that he was alive, if barely. Something struck this man down from above, but he hit the vines, and so survived, Kei realized as she rushed over. "What happened?" She asked the dark and twitching figure.  
  
"Uhh..." The man moaned.  
  
Kei took out her canteen, and dribbled it over the dying man's lips. "Listen please," She said. "I am a grass ninja." She took his right hands and traced the outline of her forehead protector with his fingers. "Tell me what happened here and I will end your suffering and see your body properly burned." It was the only thing she could offer the man, his chest had been caved in, driving his ribs into his lungs, and he would die before morning regardless.  
  
"Yes." The man managed, his voice scratching and barely audible. Kei put her ear to his face to here his dying whispers better. "Fought...dragon ninja...akat-atsuki, defeated. Ton...tonetero took, took the prisoner-"  
  
"What prisoner?" Kei asked desperately, for there had been no fallen other than grass ninja here. Had so many died to do nothing but fail an ambush? She wondered in dismay.  
  
"The light..." The prisoner coughed and rasped. "The girl, others, gone." He whispered the words and then fell silent, having no more strength to speak.  
  
The lightning? The girl? Kei heard those words and realized what they meant. If they fought the dragon ninja here, then the one that was captured must have been Shiren. A cold dread appeared in her stomach then. Tonetero has Shiren? Kei could hardly image it. Shiren had been the one bright spot in all her trials in Stone, and she had rejoiced when the lightning ninja, a girl her own age, had killed Tonetero, and had then come to visit her several times, showing her respect where no one else would.  
  
Swiftly Kei kept her promise to her fellow ninja, taking a kunai and driving it sharply and hard into the back of his head, striking the brain. The man's moans stopped immediately. Just as swiftly Kei pulled him down from the place he hung above the ground, and piled the driest nettles and branches she could find about the body. This will light a signal proclaiming I was here for miles, but I will keep my promises to the dead, and to the living.  
  
Kei remembered, she remembered the words the other dragon ninja, the cold boy named Neji, had said to her. I owe Shiren a debt, I owe her my life, and I will pay it back. As the flames rose crackling into the night, Kei made her decision. Tonetero, though it is hideous and wrong, is part of my village. I will not fight him directly, but I can free Shiren from his captivity and pay back my debt. They will have gone to the base to the south. Kei knew. If you can survive to see the next evening, Senirai Shiren, I will pay back my debt to you.  
  
Darkness was falling as Neji and Dar first saw the fort in the distance, peering from behind the trees. The stopped immediately, falling to the ground after a single glimpse.  
  
"What do you think?" Dar asked Neji.  
  
"A wooden palisade, with buildings within, any cells are likely underground, the only secure location." Neji replied. "Close to the center. Shiren and Tonetero will both be there."  
  
"That's problem then," Dar replied. "The area's too open to get close without being seen, and they'll surely kill her if we approach. Besides, with them able to see us we'll be hard pressed to defend attacks. There are probably at least twenty ninja present, and more not far from here."  
  
Hmm..." Neji considered, and not for the first time Dar wondered at the change that had overcome Neji since the morning before. He is like he seemed during the exam, only more so, Dar thought. It was like Xi in many ways, a normal man when doing nothing, a frightening inhuman creature when acting on a mission. "That is true, a normal approach is impossible. We will have to strike fast enough so that they cannot react."  
  
"How could we do that?" Dar questioned. "They're almost certain to see us coming."  
  
"True." Neji noted." There are two factors in our favor. One is that I suspect the other ninja will only kill Shiren if Tonetero orders it directly, perhaps even only if he does it himself, though I refuse to bet her life on that. Two, they will see us approach and stand on the wooden wall to attack us."  
  
"How does that help us, if they stand on the wall, they'll be able to attack us more easily and we won't be able to..." Dar trailed off as he recalled what had happened that morning when Neji fought Xi. "You can blow up a wall?"  
  
"Yes." Neji answered. He thought for a moment, and then relayed his decision to Dar aloud. "Simple is better. I will attack the wall, and then deal with Tonetero, just keep the other grass ninja off me until then."  
  
"If that's what you want." Dar replied simply. "I suppose I'm more likely to survive that way. How will you deal with Tonetero though? Xi's already killed him twice to no effect."  
  
"His body is made of dust and other pieces Xi said." Neji answered. "A wound just causes it to fly about and reform, but if he is blasted away to nothing, surely that will kill him."  
  
"If you can do that through that wall of thorns I'll be surprised." Dar answered sadly. "Still, I suppose there's no way to get Shiren out without dealing with him. All right. It's your plan."  
  
"I appreciate your assistance Dar." Neji answered. "Now we just wait until it is fully dark."  
  
When darkness had fallen Aburanki Kei slid free of her hiding place. All day long she had waited in a notch of a scraggly tree some distance from the small fort. Genjutsu disguised her as nothing more than a branch that wasn't truly there. It had not been the most comfortable position to hold, but it was a sufficient disguise. Now, Kei was ready to move.  
  
Since the other dragon ninja are out there, they will be watching carefully. She had decided as she watched throughout the day, but Kei had carefully timed the patterns in which men watched, and she knew who was the most alert and the least. They expect an attack, Kei decided, but not an infiltrator, and not one using grass ninja techniques.  
  
Crouching on the ground, Kei formed the hand seals, and moved the branches on her back. Grass and branches grew out from those implements, covering her and making her appear to be no more than a bush. The disguise was more than simple genjutsu, since the branches were real, and not just illusion. Now the trick is simply to move forward and not appear as a moving bush.  
  
Kei had another trick to use here, for by making the grass blow in the wind a bush moving forward would simply appear to be blowing in the wind. Thankfully, there is a slight breeze tonight; a few gusts will not be marked out. So Kei began her steady approach.  
  
It took a long time; crawling forward the better part of a kilometer in fits and starts. Kei suspected it took her an hour at least while the darkness deepened. Yet, she was not very nervous. She had done this before many times, and unless Tonetero was manning the walls himself, something Kei knew he would never do, she would not be detected. This is the easy part, she reminded herself. Getting out with Shiren will be the hard part.  
  
In due time Kei was at the base of the walls. Carefully she rose to her knees, making certain that the man above her was looking out into the murky darkness. Only only a cresent moon lit the night, so it was quite dark, though that meant little to the carefully honed eyes of the ninja. Kneeling Kei silently took the branches off her back, and placing them together put them to the wooden palisade. This is the problem with building things out of wood, Kei chuckled inside. It keeps other ninja out, but not grass ninja. "Plant Passage no jutsu." She whispered near silent as she formed the seals over her branches, and spun them in a circle.  
  
The wood warped and opened suddenly, affording enough space for Kei to walk through quickly. She did so and then pressed herself to the ground against the wall, staying under the shadow of the walk above her head. There was some light here, and it was dangerous. Kei could make out Tonetero's characteristic thorn-covered shape standing atop the barracks, apparently talking to himself. Talking to himself? That's a new habit, Kei noted. Did he absorb some of the Akatsuki's mind when he was brought back, or Masan's? It did not bear thinking about. Taking a quick look around Kei recognized the entrance to the prison. From that position she could figure out where the individual cells were below ground, but then it became more complicated. Which cell? Kei wondered. Which cell would your put her in monster? There are four. It won't be the first, because no ninja would do that, and not the last either, since you would want her closer than that, so the second or the third, but which one?  
  
Ah, that's right, the third, since you think women are weak, and don't think you need to keep a close eye on her. Kei made her decision. It seems knowing you has had at least a single benefit, Tonetero.  
  
With a sudden dash Kei advanced out to behind the small armory building, unused at this time of night. The cell is below me, so all I have to do is: "Root Tunnel no Jutsu." She placed one of her branches into the ground and it immediately took root there, growing massive and wide downward, but the root was also hollow, providing a cold and clammy passage for anyone who chose to use it.  
  
Well, I am committed now. Kei thought as she grabbed her branch and leapt down the hollow tube, which closed rapidly behind her.  
  
Shiren heard the strange hole open in the earth of her cell, a hollow tube that seemed to grow out of the wall. She wasted no time wondering what was happening, but positioned herself next to that hole, on the left side, hands ready with a band of her clothing, enough to try and strangle an opponent.  
  
The hole widened, and then suddenly a slim body, covered in dirt and grass, spilled out of it. Shiren wasted no time, but saw a kunai hostler emerge on the left hip. With desperate quickness she reached down and grabbed out one of the weapons, and then lurched to the right, coming down atop the new arrival.  
  
They fell to the ground with a soft thump, and Shiren brought the kunai's tip her visitor's left eye, and placed her hand over her mouth. "Say nothing." Shiren whispered into her ear, aware of the hole closing behind her. "Or I will kill you here and now."  
  
Shiren's captive made no motions, and this gave Shiren a moment to look at who had come into her cell. "Kei?" She whispered into the grass ninja's ear in surprise.  
  
Kei gave the slightest of nods.  
  
Shiren rolled off of Kei's back then, but did not release the kunai. Silently Kei separated herself from the floor.  
  
"The guard is at the end of the hall," Shiren said in her softest voice, knowing that anything more would be overheard. "But we can talk like this." She gave the muddy and disheveled Kei a strange look. "Why are you here?"  
  
"I said I would pay back my debt." Kei said, and her eyes burned fiercely. "I owe you too much to let him kill you."  
  
"So you came to get me out?" Shiren asked, trying to conceal her surprise. Of all the attempts at rescue she might have expected, this was not one of them.  
Kei nodded.  
  
"Then why are you in my cell?" Shiren asked.  
  
"It was the safest place to reach." Kei replied. "And the grass ninja are still my country and kin, I am here to rescue you not fight them."  
  
"So how do we get out?" Shiren asked. "That strange way you came in?"  
Kei shook her head. "That jutsu can only go down, roots do not grow upwards." Kei looked at the bars. "I will just cut you out."  
  
"How?" Shiren asked. "The bars resist jutsu."  
  
"What?" Kei looked at Shiren wide-eyed. "That's impossible, only the village itself has such containment. Unless..." Kei's face went white. "They were planning to hold Draci Xi, the Akatsuki bastard must have sealed them. Damn, now I have no idea." Kei deflated utterly, from a strong and self- aware ninja to the victim Shiren recognized from after the chuunin exam. It was depressing to watch.  
  
"Perhaps not." Shiren said, and she pulled out a long string, tied together from many pieces of her leggings. "The bars block chakra, but there are other forms of energy, and you have provided me with the metal I need." She held up Kei's kunai.  
  
"Huh?" Kei looked at Shiren. "What do you mean?"  
  
"You recall lightning anchor?" Shiren asked Kei. The grass ninja nodded, but was still confused.  
  
"I want you to take this, and then stomp your feet and spin as fast as you can, keeping your feet on the ground." Shiren told Kei and handed her the end of the strong, now tied to the kunai. "I'll take care of the guard when he comes."  
  
"Don't kill him." Kei said darkly.  
  
"There won't be enough power for that." Shiren said calmly. "When I tell you to stop you must stop, and be ready to act instantly, even if dizzy."  
  
"All right." Kei said quietly, completely surprised at how quickly Shiren had taken command of the situation. Still, I suppose if Tonetero catches us down here we're both dead.  
  
For Shiren, this surprising arrival was just what she needed, the best of all possible circumstances. A chance to break free, and to use her own plan, one conceived of hours ago and then abandoned due to the earthy nature of the soil. There had been not a single metallic rock for her to use, but now she had exactly what she needed. She was not sure how she felt about Kei's assistance; the grass ninja seemed to shift moods rapidly, as if lacking confidence. Perhaps she is simply afraid, Shiren decided. She went from a rescuer to another doomed if Tonetero comes. For her own part Shiren had worked past her fear hours ago, recognizing that either she would die or she would not. In the absence of hope, fear fades rapidly.  
  
Now, as Shiren readied herself to give the order, she felt that fear coming back, and her heart pounded in her chest. A bit of hope restored, and Shiren was afraid she would lose it again. No, I cannot mess this up; I have to do this, as Neji would.  
  
"Now Kei!" Shiren said, speaking the worlds in a normal voice, one that sounded hideously loud after their nearly silent conversation.  
  
Kei slammed her foot into the ground and began to spin, whirling as fast as a leaf in a whirlpool, her feet slashing across the ground at great speed, and the earthy ground responded.  
  
Down the strong that Kei held rushed a surge of static electricity, and down the hall came the guard, wondering what was going on. He was alert, but he could not predict the snaking attack Shiren had planned.  
  
The well-built ninja came into view just in time for Shiren to toss the kunai into his path. It struck his thigh, metal on flesh, and the charge built up by Kei's spin detonated in a crackling burst, stunning the man.  
  
Shiren reached out to grab the guard's shuriken pouch, which contained the keys, before he could recover. "Now Kei! Strike!"  
  
Kei's spin stopped, and through her blurry eyes she saw the guard standing outside the cell, his face contorted in pain, but he was mastering it. Even as she felt the room spin about her Kei pulled free one of her branches, and as she spun around a final time, placed it through the bars and smashed it down upon the guard's head.  
  
The grass ninja crumpled.  
  
Kei fell to the ground, her balance gone, unused to such maneuvers, but Shiren propped her up immediately. "I have the keys!" she said triumphantly, and grabbed at the lock.  
  
As the lock clicked open Kei stood up. "How do you do that to yourself and stay standing?" She asked Shiren.  
  
"There's a trick to it, Shiren replied with a smile. "Now quickly, get your bearings, we will need to get out of here."  
  
The pair walked down the hall, and they reached the guard's desk. Kei kept going, but Shiren reached out a hand to stop her. "Wait a moment."  
  
From the desk Shiren grabbed her shuriken pouch, her kunai holster, the low holster she wore on her right leg, and her hidden weapons, arranging them quickly and rapidly. Then she took the forehead protector that lay there and placed it over her hair, tying it into place firmly with a single solid motion. As long as I wear this, I can go forward as a lightning ninja. Shiren recalled herself. And as a dragon ninja. "Now we can go."  
  
Shiren and Kei moved toward the stairs, considering how they might flee, when a tremendous blast of sound came from above, followed by a crash and screams audible even through the door above. 


	37. The Dragon's Wrath

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: I'm keeping the pace, so here's the new chapter, and finally the resolution to the current problem, and enough violence that I've finally caved and upgraded the rating to R, something I dislike doing, but I suppose it is necessary for this and some of what is to come, considering the apparent sensitivity of FF.net.  
  
As a side note, I finally managed to see the Jump Festa 2004, and it appears that this story conflicts with the Naruto course not in the main plotline, but in my creation of Hidden Waterfall. Frankly, I think my Mizuho wielding borderline psychos who had the guts to take Xi on are a lot better than those portrayed in the OVA, I mean, could they have created a village that was more pathetic? Naruto and Sasuke could have conquered the whole place.  
  
Whatever, enjoy and please review!  
  
The Dragon's Wrath  
  
In the depths of night, with the crescent moon high in a sky filled with scattered clouds Neji decides it is time. I am going to get Shiren back now. He thought as he stood up slowly. As he moved slowly, behind the shelter of the small tree, working out the tensions in his muscles that had built up from lying on the ground for hours. Neji's mind crystallized around the plan he had formed. It was very simple, as he had told Dar before, and yet it would require the full use of his powers. I will need speed to match anything I have ever seen for this to work. Neji knew. Yet, there is a way. All it took was the memory of Shiren's face to remove any doubts from Neji's mind about what he must do.  
  
The only jutsu that can destroy Tonetero is dragon breath. Neji had realized that since even before the flight from that battle had finished. At first it had made him hopeless, since he had never completed the move, but now it was comforting. Though Neji had no idea how he would approach fighting Tonetero when he reached him, he knew what the final move must be, the only move that would matter.  
  
Dar stood up beside him, likewise stretching his muscles for readiness, and repositioning his sword on his belt, able to draw that crystalline weapon whenever he needed.  
  
A quick glance at the stone ninja recalled the assumptions Neji had made about him. It was strange, but he found he trusted Dar, even though he had met the ninja really only a day before. He is like Gosain, Neji decided, recognizing that he had already begun to think of the two ninja in the same way. They are similar, but there are differences, and Dar is a dragon ninja, or will be. He is reliable for this. There was only one fear Neji had about Dar now. He is quick, but I wonder if he can keep up.  
  
"Dar, it's time." Neji told him.  
  
Dar shrugged, staying silent.  
  
Neji looked away from the stone ninja, and down toward the distant fort. Four kilometers, that is the distance. They will certainly detect us when we get within three, if not before. They must not have any time to react. Neji placed his hands together, forming a single seal, one known to every ninja, Ryu, the dragon. He held the seal for a long time, focusing his mind, but doing nothing with chakra, instead he pushed all thought of that power away, for this technique was nothing of chakra. Instead he called two images into his mind. The first was of Shiren, missing, captive, taken from him. Neji had never been able to do this technique before, and he knew that there were two reasons. One was his failure to be a dragon ninja, a failure to recognize the killing spirit in him, and the second was the lack of a sufficient focus. Tonetero has given me one, and it will be his death. Neji felt his anger and hatred boil up, and he gathered it to him, pushing it slowly out of his mind, focusing it into all parts of him, dispersing that anger under the cold killing vision of a dragon ninja, letting it soak into every bit of him, so that it was fully part of him. Then Neji called up the second image, the image of Wusashu that he had long tried to forget, of the dragon's absolute rage when he obliterated Mizain Seve, the destructive fury of those alien eyes, completely without mercy and drawing upon a reserve of power that it seemed no body could contain.  
  
Neji's hands moved, the seal folding in and slamming his knuckles together with a crack. "Dragon's Wrath." He whispered in a voice that was not his own, but seemed to come from some other place, well beyond him.  
  
Dar, watching the motion, could not see the hands move, and he wondered what happened.  
  
For Neji the world seemed to shift into slow motion around him, and everything went absolutely crystal clear. He could feel and detect precisely how much strength and energy he had, and he could feel it begging for release, his body burned with the energy it had unleashed within itself.  
  
"Dar, run as fast as you can." Neji told him.  
  
"What?" Dar asked, confusion in his voice.  
  
Neji's hand whipped down, grabbing the nekode from his legs and lifting them back up.  
  
Dar blinked, and then again. The nekode had just materialized on Neji's hands. Dar recognized that he must have reached down and grabbed them, but that wasn't possible. No human can move that fast, even with chakra, the nerves can't move that fast, they can't!  
  
Neji took a step forward, and then he ran.  
  
To Dar it appeared as a white and tan blur advancing in the darkness, as he desperately started to run to catch up. The Stone ninja had never seen anything like that, except the movements of the dragon, Sirachi, the day before.  
  
Dragon's Wrath, Neji recalled Xi's explanation silently as he dashed forward, pushing his newfound speed to the utmost. The move was like Lotus in many ways, and yet it was different. Lotus increased the power and demand placed on the muscles, overriding the brain's restrictions. Dragon's Wrath went beyond that. It did not affect the muscles, but the nerves. There is a limit to the speed of human nerves, one not even chakra can overcome, an absolute upper maximum that certain ninja, such as Uchiha Itachi, might reach during their lifetimes. There is no earthly way past that limit, Xi had told Neji, but the anger of a dragon is not a thing of this world, and neither is the essence of a human who can break through all barriers. If you summon the Dragon's Wrath the only limit to the speed and power of your reactions if your own will, the very speed of your thoughts.  
  
Like Lotus, this incredibly powerful technique had a price, this exertion of anger made one with the power to strike. Once exhausted the user could do nothing, not even move, until rested, and even then it would take some time for the body to recover, but that was not the greatest danger. The greatest danger was to lose control during wrath, for without the limitations of the nerves, a ninja could easily move so fast and strong as to rip their own body apart. "Therefore, you must use this only when absolutely necessary." Xi had told Neji.  
  
Now is such a time. I will get Shiren back from you Tonetero, or I will die in the attempt! Neji swore.  
  
The land flew by in Neji's sight, the Byakugan already enveloping his eyes. He saw the wall, his objective, and how far he had to travel to reach it. He slashed over the ground then, terrifyingly quick, blasting past the maximum speed of a human, to reach the speed of a running cat across the plains, a creature of the air and the earth.  
  
The grass ninja saw this streak, and heard the screaming sound Neji's advance made across the scrubland. Grass ninja ran to the wall, grabbing for their weapons and reaching the position, considering what they could do.  
  
It was too late. "Too slow!" Neji thundered, leaping into the air to cover the last segment like a launched missile. He saw the grass ninja raise weapons or form seals in the beginnings of a counterattack, but it was all too late. Nekode outreached, and Neji reached the wall.  
  
"Rend!" It was like the impact of some hellish weapon from a world not yet made, as if a great bird had slammed down from the heavens to hit the wooden wall.  
  
The wall burst apart, flinging ninja and fragments of wood everywhere, mingling both together, so that ninja screamed and died as great shards of wood slashed through their bodies. Ten ninja removed from the opposition before they had time to even strike.  
  
Yet Neji was not done. Even as Tonetero's head turned and he saw exactly what had happened, shock breaking out over his face, Neji was already moving.  
  
Two grass ninja stood between him and the building Tonetero stood upon.  
  
Neji slashed through them, moving his arms around their weapons, will and chakra guiding his movements, under and over swords, to bring nekode through the vulnerable points, leaving them behind before they even had time to realize they were dead.  
  
As Neji landed in front of him, Tonetero turned fully to face the dragon ninja. "You!" He hissed. "You dare!" Thorns whirled around him like a great swarm of brown knives. "Kill him you fools!"  
  
The seven grass ninja who yet stood in the compound hesitated for a moment. Their faces were torn, did they attack this ninja who had just slain half of them, this specter who moved like a monster and not a man, or did they disobey the true monster, the one who could not die. Though they hesitated, they were about the first took a step toward Neji, the madness in Tonetero's eyes having decided them.  
  
"You have other concerns!" That came from the voice of Kataishi Dar, whose crystalline blade shattered the katana one of the men held and then slashed a horrid gash into his side. The remaining grass ninja, seeing this enemy, a dangerous man to be sure, but one they could fight, turned to face him.  
  
"You traitors!" Tonetero howled, then his head jerked around in fear.  
  
"Clawing Whirlwind!" Neji's lethal spin impacted upon that screen of thorns, slashing and clawing, slicing the wooden spikes into diced pieces. When the move completed the screen of thorns lay broken upon the rooftop. "You should be concerned for yourself." Neji said through eyes empty of any feeling. This was not even killing, it was the destruction of a thing that should already have been dead, one that had dared to attack him and imprison Shiren.  
  
Tonetero slid back swiftly, bringing his hands together. "We build things from wood here!" He shouted back. The roof cracked under his feet, and a new storm of thorns, including many pieces of the old rose up around him.  
  
Damn! Neji thought. There must be a way to penetrate that wall of thorns. As long as it is up he will dodge away from dragon breath as he did with Xi.  
  
"It is useless." Tonetero laughed, and a stream of wooden missiles launched themselves at Neji.  
  
They would have seemed fast as arrows from a bow had a normal person been watching, and they came in from all sides.  
  
Neji simply raised his hands, and his motion blurred, in a moment all the thorns crashed to the ground, crushed.  
  
Tonetero's eyes went wide, and the shock in him was clear. Yet the dead man was beyond fear, fully in the throes of the madness of Edo Tensei, the instability that encompassed a psyche allowed free reign after returning from death. He readied to attack again.  
  
There must be a way! Neji thought, even as he saw Dar spin and fall back from the assault of grass ninja. The stone ninja was skilled, and the mysteries of his weapon allowed him to hold all six off for now, but it would not last. I must finish you, Tonetero.  
  
Tonetero's wall of thorns advanced again, a solid block that would impale Neji somewhere, anywhere.  
  
Neji spun backwards, lifting himself into the air, moving faster than Tonetero could react, falling into the midst of the thorns. "Kaiten!" His spin came down, and thorns blasted apart wide into the air.  
  
Then something unanticipated happened.  
  
From below the barracks edge a dark blue figure leapt into the air, shuriken flashing from her hands, with wires behind them. They buried themselves in the rooftop, and then the hands guiding them pulled taught, and made a single seal. "Now Neji!"  
  
Tonetero lurched backward, held fast in the grasp of Shiren's charged wires.  
  
Neji did not question, did not react, though his heart slammed and his mind clouded. "Now you die, monster!" Neji's hands flashed through the seals as fast as he could bring their forms to mind. The same sequence Xi had called forth the day before, and Tonetero saw what was coming.  
  
His hands rose to his face, and Neji exhaled. "Dragon's Breath no Jutsu!"  
  
It was not lightning that Neji called, but fire.  
  
The blast of red and orange flame lit the night clearly, and Tonetero looked upon that blast and struggled to move, but Shiren's wires held fast, and no thorn, though it struck them, could slice apart those charged wires.  
  
"I am not so easily destroyed." Tonetero's body spat thorns, and they moved before his body in a spinning, double layered screen. The thorns slid behind each other to avoid being burned to nothing, and though blasts of scorching heat penetrated, enough to singe a living man to death with the burns, the dead man's body would clearly not be destroyed. Tonetero laughed within the inferno of dragon's breath.  
  
You monster! Neji thought, but he had not lost his focus, and so, still with the dragon's wrath in him, he saw the play of thorns move slow, and aided by the Byakugan he saw the chakra of dragon's breath advance. It is not a solid wave, but streams of energy. Neji saw, and recognized the meaning. I have you monster!  
  
From his mouth Neji channeled the streams of chakra, seeing the pattern of Tonetero's motion, and predicting it. Suddenly the thorns that blocked dragon's breath encountered nothing but light, and the true power of this most lethal of moves penetrated to Tonetero.  
  
The grass ninja's gasps turned to screams. He howled once, and then his thorns fell to the ground before him, and his body ignited. Then, in a flash of orange and red, Tonetero was gone.  
  
Everything stopped.  
  
For long seconds all heads turned to where Tonetero had stood, looking for signs of dust collecting, but there was nothing but smoke, and scorched thorns.  
  
The grass ninja looked at each other, and at their foes, and vanished into the night.  
  
Neji's eyes went from the place Tonetero had occupied, to the woman standing in front of him. Shiren was muddy, battered, covered in scratches, and wearing little more than remnants of her clothes, but he thought he the most beautiful sight in the world at that moment.  
  
They said nothing, but Neji took two steps forward, and then realized that his anger was gone. The world seemed to slam to a stop, and all the strength left his limbs, so that it was Shiren that caught him.  
  
Standing against her, Neji wrapped his arms around Shiren's warm form, and they lowered each other to the rooftop.  
  
Shiren put her arms around Neji as well, holding him against her. "Thank you for coming to save me, Neji." She said the words softly, and whispered his name into his ear.  
  
"Shiren." Neji replied. "Thank you for coming to save me." He placed his hand in her long dark hair, unbound now, and rested his head against hers. "Shiren, I-"Neji began.  
  
"Quiet." Shiren whispered. "I know Neji, me too." She smiled at him, and that much at least was untouched by her captivity. "So don't spoil this moment." So they stayed on the rooftop, and they sat like that for some time.  
  
Dar, standing below, looked around, assessing things. He noted quickly that the fires were not lit. Considering that strange Dar looked out along the remnants of the wall. There he caught a glimpse of a slim figure looking out over the destruction.  
  
Dar raised his sword to his eyes, and gazed through the weapon, and he recognized the figure of a female ninja, wearing gnarled branches on her back. Aburanki Kei.  
  
Kei, staring out at the two ninja in their embrace, wondered what it all meant. I have paid back my debt, and seen Tonetero destroyed, but twelve of my countrymen lie dead, and this place is destroyed. Did I do the right thing?  
  
Looking down Kei's vision chanced upon Dar. That ninja, who is he. She took a closer look. That is the stone ninja who came and told me Tonetero was dead after the exam! He is no medical ninja, who is he? Kei did not know.  
  
Dar, seeing Kei looking at him, and recognizing this young ninja as the source of Shiren's timely appearance, raised his crystal sword in a salute.  
  
Surprised, Kei returned the gesture with a kunai, and then leapt off the palisade and ran off into the darkness of the night. 


	38. The Wind Rises

Author's Notes: Well, this chapter is kind of an interlude, since the previous bit concluded and certain things are about to happen. This is really the last quiet chapter before the big rush to the finish begins. Just really tying up some loose ends and setting things to go again, but after this, watch out.  
  
Thanks to the reviewers out there, and I apologize for FF.net (and I even went and made the story R too)  
  
Nalio: Small secret, at the moment all I'm doing is editing and posting, which is basically a single read through of the chapter, a spell check, and then typing up these notes (takes 15-20 minutes normally). The chapters I'm posting now are all written already (self-destructive writing weekend).  
  
Uchiha Kumiko: Dar can probably see better in the dark (it was the middle of the night, even if that doesn't matter to Neji) by looking through his sword, since it sort of has a light of its own. I think there will be about 45 chapters in total, some of which will be quite short.  
  
The Wind Rises  
  
Konoha is a pleasant village in the spring, with flowers blooming and everything bright and green. There is peacefulness to the village of the Leaf, even if everything remains on edge, for the winter brought no resolution to the conflicts now happening in the shadows of the ninja world. Indeed, for those who knew, this peaceful period hid a frightful thing. Warmth had returned, snow had melted, and the roads were clear. While the farmers tended their crops throughout the shinobi countries there was now nothing to stop nations from marshalling for war.  
  
Last summer was only the opening skirmish, aware ninja thought dangerously. The true battles are coming this year. Everyone who could was making ready.  
  
The best way to be ready to is to strike first, before your opponent's plans come to fruition. Draci Xi thought as he stood in the shadow of a tall building in Konoha, and yet, I am stuck here. The whims of the Hokage, Tsunade, hold me back.  
  
It had been a full week since Xi had returned to Konoha, alone, but having tracked the trail of the Akatsuki Kizen all the way to Waterfall country, he knew where that ninja was. The Akatsuki were cunning, and though they had schemed all winter long, Xi was the first to identify one beyond those already known, Itachi, Kisame, and the rogue Orochimaru with true certainty. He had seen Kizen wearing the Akatsuki robe though, and also the ring, bearing the symbol of west, the designation of the sand ninja. I wonder what ring she wears? Xi thought. I will find out in time.  
  
Yet Tsunade had not done as Xi wished. The dragon ninja had requested a force be marshaled to go to Waterfall and demand the Akatsuki be yielded up. At the very least Xi had requested a jounin strike force be assembled and taken with him, so that he could hunt down Kizen within the Waterfall village and deal with him. But Tsunade had refused that request as well. I know you don't like me witch, but I thought you would at least believe me. Instead you demand that your own intelligence and information gatherers find out that the mummifier is there, and you send word to Sand so you can build a joint task force. Who will they send, their hunter -nins?  
  
Admittedly, Xi was forced to acknowledge, Tsunade has cause to refuse me, I am still a lightning ninja after all. A pity there is no treaty, but the clans would never allow it. I cannot make requests of Raikage; he has his own troubles, and cannot spare anyone. Besides, there are no good hunter-nins in lightning, not since eight years ago. So I am stuck waiting.  
  
Xi fumed at waiting, but he did nothing about it, instead he had concentrated on something else, training his students.  
  
They had come back a day after him, Shiren carrying Neji with her. Neji bore the signs of having used Dragon's Wrath, and Xi accepted that. He had expected it, and it confirmed beyond any doubt that Neji no longer needed Xi's teaching. That evened things up, two teachers, two students. Neji worked with Shiren, and Xi with Dar. In the course of the week Shiren had finally mastered Rend, despite little affinity for the move. Training Dar, Xi found the stone ninja to be something of a different case. Three years older than Neji and Shiren, and already a chuunin of his own accord, Dar did not defer to Xi. Oh, he was perfectly respectful, but Xi recognized that he only needed to instruct the stone ninja not teach him. As Xi had expected, Dar already understood much of being a dragon ninja.  
  
Rend eluded Dar almost completely, but when Neji demonstrated Dragon Fang for Shiren, the stone ninja immediately began practicing that move. Xi was shocked to see Dar attempt Fang not using his fingers, but the tip of his sword. It was a strange sensation, to see chakra channeled through a weapon like that, as if it were nothing more than an extension of the flesh. In only four days Dar had completely learned the jutsu, though only using the sword, not his hands.  
  
Yet, it should be done now, there is no point in waiting. There may be no chances later. Xi decided, and he called off training for the next day, and ended early.  
  
Neji and Shiren went off together, as they had done all week; Neji was finally almost completely recovered from the expenditure of his energies.  
  
"They are going to eat together again." Dar said to Xi as they walked down into Konoha.  
  
"It that a bad thing Dar?" Xi asked.  
  
"No, it is actually quite impressive." Dar remarked. "Few ninja are so lucky as to be able to find the one they love, much less work with them, especially so young."  
Xi detected a current of dissatisfaction in Dar's tone. "Do you not think it will last?" He asked. "Or do you feel left out?"  
  
"I don't feel left out," Dar replied. "Not at all, Neji proved he trusted me when he took me with him to free Shiren, and she did also on the journey back here, allowing me to help her carry him." Dar sighed. "I even suspect they will endure, it just makes you feel a bit hollow, seeing them." Dar fingered his sword. "They are better friends than I've had for some time, but I suspect that as long as I bear this I cannot go farther."  
  
There was no easy reply to that remark. Xi looked at Dar carefully. What do you want me to say? He wondered. I have given up on such things forever, my home and everyone I knew are lost to me, even though I am still part of it. "Perhaps we are not all destined to be so lucky." Xi said finally. "This world is not like that."  
  
"How disheartening." Dar replied in a voice well beyond his years. "I suppose I will just have to do what I can then." He walked away at that point, not bothering to give Xi a chance to reply.  
  
How terribly similar to me you seem, Kataishi Dar. Xi thought. I hope that letting you become a dragon ninja will not bring you woe. I suppose only the dragons can tell.  
  
In the morning they met on a field outside Konoha.  
  
Xi stood in front of the assembled three. He addressed them. "Shiren and Dar, today you will become dragon ninja in full. From the back pocket of his flak jacket he pulled out a thin and colorful scroll. "You will write your names in blood here, and give up the families of your birth, entering the ranks of the dragon ninja." Xi opened the scroll, revealing the small boxes that marched from right to left, the many names of all those who had been dragon ninja. The last row had two spaces remaining, the name above those was Neji, and above that Xi. "By placing your names here you will gain the power to summon dragons, and bind them into a contract with you. Bite your left index finger, and sign your name with your blood." Xi held out the scroll to Shiren. "You first."  
  
Shiren bit into her finger calmly, and wrote the characters for her name into the box in small and sure script. She took the scroll in her right hand, so as to not get blood on it, and passed it to Neji, standing next to her. Neji then handed the scroll to Dar. Dar took the scroll and bit his own finger, though he seemed to hesitate for a moment when his hand passed above the point his sword hilt rested. Then, pushing forward, he made the marks swiftly, and signed his named. He sealed the scroll up afterwards, and handed it back to Xi.  
  
Xi took the scroll and placed it back in his flak jacket. "When I am gone the scroll will pass to Neji, and then to whoever comes after." Xi said in a voice far softer than he usually spoke. "Now, there is one more thing to do, Draci Shiren, Draci Dar."  
  
"What is that?" They asked, after feeling the names settle over them, a strange feeling, to leave behind the only name you knew. Dar seemed almost to wince when Xi called him that.  
  
"You must each summon a dragon." Xi told them. "You have both seen it done, so I will not waste my debts demonstrating. The process is simple, you complete these seals: Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle." Xi demonstrated each of the dragon seals in turn, and made sure Shiren and Dar memorized them. "Then prick your index finger and spread your hands upon the ground to trigger the summoning. The summoning is not without danger, or without a price. You have both seen this; the dragon will stare into you with its eyes, projecting the fear that cannot be comprehended. You must fight this fear and master it. Shiren, I have shown you the dragon's eye, you are able to do this. Dar, this will be an additional test, since I am allowing this so quickly."  
  
Dar nodded.  
  
"Good." Xi confirmed. "The price of this summoning is that dragons are not like other spirit creatures, they will not serve with out incurring debt. You can call their service by invoking a debt, if you are owed one, and before you dismiss any dragon, request if you may perform a task for it, so that they will owe you such debts. However, that is not important now, owing the dragons some is not a great matter so early in your lives."  
  
Xi looked at both Shiren and Dar in turn. "For this, gather all your chakra together and use it all, so that you can learn your limits, even if later you summon a lesser dragon. This is an important gauge."  
  
They both nodded, and stood ready. Xi gestured for them to begin. Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle. Shiren and Dar formed the seals, and then bit their fingers and executed the technique. "Dragon summoning no jutsu!"  
  
The air lashed about them all, two counter currents of power and chakra, thrashing the field and whipping hair and cloths about, and forcing the ninja to close their eyes.  
  
When they opened them again there were two dragons in the clearing.  
  
In front of Shiren was a long and eel-like in form, green and blue, with a long fin stretching down the back and webbed claws and feet. The jaws were mane-covered and enormous, situated beneath powerful horns and pearly eyes. This was a Chiang Lung, a river dragon, fourteen feet in length. Shiren stared into those pearly eyes and felt the fear wash over her, but she knew Neji was next to her, and called up his image, remembering the sacrifices they had made for each other. I will not be put down by such as this! Shiren vowed. Gradually the fear faded away.  
  
Before Dar was a very different majestic form, scaled in bright red, and coiled, he hung in the air, a dragon lacking legs and arms, but with a jaw mane-covered in all the colors of the rainbow, and a quickness and power to snap those jaws shut around anything he touched. This dragon stretched sixteen feet from head to tail; it was a guardian dragon, a Pan Lung. Dar faced the fear with the same technique he had long used, crystallizing his mind until nothing could cut it, refusing to be touched by that which projected into him, forming a wall about himself. The Pan Lung shook its mane and bowed its head after many moments.  
  
"Ask their names." Xi commanded, noting the different summons. A Chiang lung and a Pan Lung, both of similar ages, though the Pan Lung is of course longer, I wonder why those? Both are powerful. Xi had expected that Shiren would summon a Shen Lung as he had, and Dar a Li Lung, an earth dragon. It appears I have not understood them fully. He realized.  
  
"All honor to thee, Chiang Lung, may I ask your name?" Shiren spoke first. "I am Elisylni," The Chiang Lung said in a voice that was unearthly, but distinctively feminine, another surprise for Xi, who had known female dragons existed, but had never summoned one. "My title is the Deep Slicing Stream."  
  
Shiren bowed.  
  
"All honor to thee, Pan Lung, may I ask your name?" Dar requested of the dragon before him.  
  
"I am Giraltiej, my title is the Holder in the Deeps." The pan lung answered, its voice male, and of very different timbre than the Chiang Lung.  
  
Dar bowed.  
  
"You stand before us, four dragon ninja." Giraltiej continued. "We, summoned into this world for the very first time. The world has changed very rapidly, even by the reckonings of men, by the reckoning of our kind it as if the decline of the dragon ninja shall have never been. Two dragons stand at once in the world of humans for the first time in over a century. It is remarkable."  
  
"We are bound by our summons to serve, though you incur a debt by calling us here." Elisylni spoke now. "Do you ask anything of us?"  
  
"No," Both Dar and Shiren replied. "But if there is anything we can do to help you, we would know?"  
  
"You will go to Hidden Waterfall in time, Draci Shiren and Draci Dar." Both dragons said as one. "Travel with your companion, Draci Neji, and do not allow yourselves to become separated. By fulfilling his quest, you will aid us as well."  
  
Not just Sirachi, what is happening in Waterfall concerns all dragons! Xi thought, surprised and almost frightened. Whatever is being done there bears importance to all ninja. The schemes of Mehize Kizen must be stopped it seems, or even these great spirits will suffer. I must convince Tsunade!  
  
"You are free to go." Shiren and Dar intoned, and the dragons vanished.  
  
"Well," Xi looked at them when they were gone. "I suspect you two are tired." He was greeted with nods. "Summoning dragons is not easy, even for me." Xi told them seriously. "Still, I want you to come with me, all of you." He included Neji. "What was said here needs to be taken to the Hokage, and I will not waste any time."  
  
It was only a few minutes later that they stood outside the Hokage's office, and only minutes after that when a chuunin ushered them in. Xi was surprised, for Tsunade had always made him wait before, seeming to take a bitter satisfaction in it. Something has happened, I wonder what it is.  
  
The four dragon ninja entered.  
  
"All four of the merry band of killers?" Tsunade looked up in surprise. "I didn't expect that."  
  
"There has been a development." Xi told her, not rising to the baited remark, indeed not bothering to deny the truth. The hypocrisy is yours, not mine, healing ninja.  
  
"Really?" Tsunade looked at Xi strangely. "Something has happened on my side as well."  
  
The Hokage's grim voice was hardly comforting. "What happened?" Xi asked darkly, suspicious.  
  
"Here." Tsunade flipped a sheaf of paper at him. "The latest report from Hidden Stone, three of their jounin were slain, supposedly by Waterfall ninja." Tsunade grimaced. "Who knows if that's true? Anyway, Stone has withdrawn its alliance with Waterfall, and considering who was killed its not surprising."  
  
"So who died?" Xi asked. "I wouldn't have thought the Waterfall could muster the strength to kill three jounin so easily, not with their losses this winter. Kizen must have aided them."  
  
"There's little doubt about that, the jounin who were killed were the guardians of Mount Shinogami." Tsunade hissed out the name.  
  
"The burial mountain." Xi said flatly. "How grandiose of him."  
  
"How foul!" Tsunade spat. "The veterans of the last great battle of the great shinobi wars were buried there, I don't know what he's planning to do with them, and the Stone report didn't say, but I'm sure he took them back to Waterfall." The Gondaime Hokage looked up at Xi. "I thought it would never happen, but I am going to accede to your request, Xi. Konoha will gather a force of its strongest jounin and chuunin and deal with this matter. I will send to Stone for support as well."  
  
"Tsuchikage will grant it, he will try to conquer Waterfall afterwards, but perhaps that should happen." Xi said simply.  
  
"No war is a good war!" Tsunade barked. "But if he can quietly annex some of the country very well. Regardless Xi, I will allow you to go, but only if your students come along. Draci Neji, as a leaf chuunin your presence is mandatory regardless of Xi's decision."  
  
"Don't worry," Xi replied. "I'll be going, and Shiren and Dar as well, the dragons practically demanded it not an hour ago."  
  
Tsunade gave Xi a blank look. "You're telling the truth, aren't you?" She sighed. "I was hoping this report was a lie. Very well, I hope you all can make a difference. Regardless, it will take several days to prepare the force. I will place Aoba in charge."  
  
"Then I will consult with him, Neji as well." Xi vaguely recalled the jounin Tsunade had named. "We are familiar with the area and the abilities of the Waterfall ninja."  
  
"What about us?" Shiren asked immediately.  
  
Xi gave a half-smile, but his eyes were predatory. "You and Dar should go to the northeast reaches of Fire country, practice your skills there, but don't be quiet about it. Try to get discrete word to the Cloud ninja, but trust only the ANBU." Xi repeated himself. "Only the ANBU, none of the rest are necessarily loyal to Raikage. If you can get word he may be able to offer some small support at least."  
  
"Even drawing ANBU back from the border would free up some of our ninja." Tsunade remarked. "You are surprisingly helpful today Xi."  
  
When three different breeds of dragons ask something of you, you do everything in your power to see it done. Xi thought, but said nothing. "How many days?" Was all he asked.  
  
"Four." Tsunade answered simply.  
  
"Four days then." He repeated to Shiren and Dar. They nodded. 


	39. The Storm Comes

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Okay, time to unleash the madness and not stop until the end of the tale, here we go! I seem to have left reviewers behind for now, but that's okay, hopefully everyone will catch up, or maybe FF.net was just having a bad day (it seemed to be when I posted last time. Still, I'll keep to schedule if I can.  
  
Hopefully you can give reviews!  
  
The Storm Comes  
  
A foul night. Gosain thought, looking out into the gaping blackness between the buildings of Hidden Cloud village. The rain has stopped for now, but the clouds remain, black and thick, and the wind fails to blow them away. A viscous spring storm, he noted. It appears that being away from this caused me to forget.  
  
Five weeks had passed since Gosain returned to his village, a newly made chuunin. He was celebrated in ceremony the day of his return, and served as Shiren's proxy as well. Raikage gave him a true flak jacket for the very first time himself, and there was something of a celebration. For whatever it was worth, Gosain decided. He recalled the bad points as well. The heads of the Nemari and Monihii clans had spat at his feet openly, in front of Raikage, and no one said anything. Debate had raged furiously about punishing Gosain for crippling Nemari, and about whether or not Shiren should be allowed to become a chuunin at all.  
  
Raikage had been in the center of those debates, and had sent Gosain in with his assistants, forcing him to watch them all. Had I not seen it with my own eyes I would never have believed. The bickering and factionalism were ridiculous, with every powerful clan having a different vision for the village, and the minor clans posturing their loyalties to whomever offered them a chance at strength. I knew there were differences, I saw it even when I served with others, but this, it was beyond imagining. Who would have thought that those who lead us are so divided, and that they demand loyalties of others? The debate about Gosain's punishment had raged for almost two hours. Gosain watched as Raikage simply let the debate rage, and Gosain realized that he did not have the power to quell it and demand obedience. Well, he does, but only so much, and he cannot spend it on such things as this.  
  
In the end however, when one of the minor clans questioned why Gosain had not been immediately punished in Hidden Stone, Raikage made his own maneuver. "The chuunin exam's rules were the province of Hidden Stone. Tsuchikage pronounced Gosain free of wrongdoing, if you consider this a problem I suggest you take it up with him." That had stopped debate cold, though Gosain had looked at Raikage then, and had seen the anger in the man's eyes. He hates this. Good, this is despicable.  
  
Regarding Shiren debate was even more heated, if that was possible, and accusations flew from the very beginning. "Draci Xi?" The Nemari clan head mocked. "Why should we give that traitor's spawn back to the original traitor? The dragon ninja are a waste, something the times have made useless, Shiren should be returned here and set a task appropriate to her abilities."  
  
"I will forgive your accusation for the moment." Raikage replied, grim. "Since you are out of sorts due to the injury to your son." He stared the man down, preventing a reply. "However, Draci Xi will not be referred to as a traitor in this council. He has been punished appropriate to his crimes, but remains loyal to this village. If you truly intend to contest his training of our newest chuunin, I suggest you come up with legitimate grounds."  
  
Three and a half hours later, with the night wearing thin and Raikage's patience measured in inches from his swordhilt, he finally ended the debate. "Very well, since none of you have managed to offer me a legitimate reason or reasonable alternate to the current situation, Draci Xi's training of Senirai Shiren stands. Good night." At that point he simply stood up and left, leaving the clan heads and councilors to bicker amongst themselves.  
  
Gosain recalled what had happened after most vividly. On the way back to his own rooms Raikage had turned to him, after dismissing his other guards, and said a very few words. "Do you understand the situation, chuunin?"  
  
Gosain had simply nodded.  
  
"Good." Raikage replied, face set. "Now, I must know, will you be loyal to this village and help me, or will you obey a second master when the times turn desperate?"  
"I have seen too much blood spilled for this village to do anything but serve it." Gosain replied, anger lacing his words. "You have my service."  
  
"Then I am going to make you work hard, very hard." Raikage said simply. "Get some rest, because you will not rest again soon."  
  
Now, standing at his window and watching the nightfall, Gosain fully understood those words. I have served seven missions in five weeks, and I led five of those. Every time, leading genin into the heart of danger. It had been brutal, and they had not all been successes, more names had gone onto the list of those lost near Gosain. Two chuunin dead on the mist border, a genin to a tiger outside of Fire country, and then those under my command, a genin lost a leg to a rogue samurai, and another an arm to a missin-nin's trap, and then a third, killed by a bear summons, while playing cat and mouse with mist ninja. Never did we have no injuries, always the genin got hurt, and I.  
  
There were two new scars on Gosain's chest, brutal marks from kunai slashes, and his leg had been laid open to the bone by a water jutsu. Medical jutsu healed my wounds, but I can recall the pain. They are starting to call me the cursed chuunin now, damn them. There was no respect for Gosain from the various upper ninja. Most of the chuunin thought him a fool, and the jounin ignored him, it was a harsh thing to deal with. Gosain was no stranger to hardship, however, and there were two signs that proclaimed those above him foolish. The first was the look from Raikage's eyes that he received when he returned after each of those seven missions. It may not have been pretty, and it was not clean, but I completed every mission, every time, I got the job done. Beyond even that though, there was something Gosain had just noticed, something more important. The genin, they look up to me, I can see it in their eyes, I am their leader. Younger than he, all of them, Gosain had seen them look up at him for direction, beg him for help when trouble struck, and rely on him to save them. He had seen them believe in him, trust him. At the end of the mission they would look at him and Gosain knew they believed he had done everything possible, made every sacrifice. They trusted this chuunin who came back covered in mud, grime, chains, and blood to do his utmost. It is not how they look at those clan prodigies who come back so clean. The genin have the only pure eyes in this village, and they believe in me. It left Gosain trembling when he thought about it, what had been placed on his shoulders, but he was resolved. I will not fail that trust.  
  
And so there was no rest for him.  
  
I have another mission tomorrow; I must get what sleep I can. Gosain closed the window to his small room, blocking out the foul weather stirring outside. What I can, even if it is not enough.  
  
The patter of rain and crash of thunder covered most sound during the night, blocking even the senses of the ninja from awareness, but at the creak of a glass pane Gosain came instantly awake.  
  
It was not meant to have been enough; a ninja in full combat garb cut through the window and came to the bedside with a drawn sword. There was nowhere to dodge and no time to grab a weapon.  
  
But Gosain did not take off his chains at night.  
  
"Whirling Stormfront!" The attacking ninja was slammed back into the wall as chains spun around his body, slamming him again and again. It was only a moment, but when it was done he crumpled to the ground, skull crushed.  
  
Gosain was upright in moments, pulling on his flak jacket and weapons even as he looked at his attacker. "Lightning?" He could not restrain himself from speaking the word aloud, so great was his shock. The ninja wore a facemask over his mouth, but Gosain pulled it off quickly. A chuunin, I knew this man, one of the Monihii. What is going on? Gosain's head spun quickly even as he readied himself for battle. An assassination attempt? He wondered, and then the thunder cleared for a moment.  
  
The clash of metal on metal could be heard from outside, weapon hitting weapon. Gosain turned to his window, and suddenly the thought that had crept into his mind was confirmed. He looked out and saw ninja crash through the trees, and kunai and shuriken flew through the rain and storm. The Lightning are at war. It was a horrible thing to realize in the middle of that storm, even moreso for what followed. With ourselves.  
  
A ninja dashed into the open in front of Gosain's window, a genin, a young girl he knew, one just out of the academy. With hesitant hand seals she called up a Bushin, only to watch as a kunai flew through it, dissipating the clone as soon as it formed.  
  
"That's all little girl?" A voice mocked, and two ninja flashed in neck to the genin, they were chuunin both, not bothering to hide their faces or lightning uniforms, and Gosain knew their identities. Fesyiri clan. Bastards, you're going to murder a genin? One of our genin?  
  
There were no thoughts, no words, only a single action and a burning rage that the storm could not quench. Gosain leapt from the window, completely unnoticed by his attackers, who must have thought the building harbored no threat. Chains moved in tune with his instincts and the shocked Fesyiri chuunin never even got the chance to scream.  
  
Chains wrapped around their necks, and then Gosain hurled them into the wall headfirst, killing with a red and brutal violence.  
  
His feet struck the ground with a thump, and the genin girl spun, a kunai in her hands, but arms trembling. Gosain stood before her, water splattering his black hair, his scarred cheeks and cold and bloody chains wrapped around him. She stifled a scream.  
  
"Calm down, girl." Gosain said quickly. "You must stay quiet, and straighten your arms, you will need your full strength behind any blow."  
  
The genin nodded. "Chuunin Gosain?" She whispered.  
  
"Yes." Gosain answered immediately. "Now get into the shadow of the building." Gosain ordered, conscious of the sounds of battle raging about them. "What is going on?"  
  
The words stumbled out of the genin all jumbled, but they were enough to provide a picture of destruction. "They came, everywhere, strange ninja, all in night blue, killing, they were killing everyone I think, while they slept, at least, we think that. At the academy, one of the teachers, he rang the alarm, but it didn't carry. Everyone, at least, everyone I think, maybe not some people, a few are missing, we all gathered, but they started attacking, friends, relatives, everyone." She started crying. "Chuunin Gosain?" She asked through teary eyes. "What is happening?"  
  
"I don't know." Gosain replied simply, refusing to lie. "All the genin gathered?" He asked, taking hold of the girl's shoulders, making he look at him and answer. She nodded just barely. "I think everyone."  
  
"Only the genin?" Gosain asked. "Where are the chuunins, the ANBU, your jounin senseis?" He demanded.  
  
"Don't know, don't know, don't know." She sobbed. "Everyone fighting, what do we do Gosain sensei, what do we dooo?"  
  
Gosain stood up straight. What do I do indeed? There are no answers, this is civil war. It seems that everyone else has chosen sides or been killed. Who could have done this? What sparked such a thing? Gosain shook his head suddenly. Never mind, it doesn't matter, I have to be responsible, I must. The genin have come out to fight, no clans, nothing, they are here. If there are no other chuunin, then I have to do what I can. I must help them.  
  
"Show me to the others, quickly, we must get together and form a plan, a battle line." Gosain released the girl. "Now, hurry!"  
  
The scene was a nightmare, all through lightning, the sounds of battle raged amid the blackness of the storm, lit only by broken lamps and lanterns and the flashes of seemingly endless lightning. They had not passed over a single building when Gosain came upon three genin dodging and running from a pursuing chuunin. "Throw now!" He commanded to his companion. "No hesitation!" His chains lashed forward, no time for jutsu in this madness. "Drop and turn you genin!" He ordered.  
  
It was strange for Gosain to watch it unfold, the girl to his right threw a kunai, and the three genin in front dropped. He brought his chains toward the chuunin, again a face he knew, but one whose name escaped him. The man dodged above the chuunin, and them below the whipping chains, only to take three shuriken in the face from the genin who had turned on their pursuer.  
  
He jumped up in pain, and then vanished beneath the onslaught of chains. The madness of melee, the time for my style, the ability to be anywhere, to strike along any length. Gosain's anger brought forth a feral gleam in his eyes. I hold the striking tendrils of the storm, and I will not show mercy to these traitors.  
  
The three genin turned to Gosain, and he found that he knew one. "Shu." He spoke, causing the genin, a two-year ninja who had served with him two missions ago, to turn around. "What is happening?"  
  
"An attack everywhere, Gosain-san." Shu answered. "These night blue ninja came first, and killed many who were asleep, there must have been some jutsu in the storm. Still, some ANBU awoke and were fighting them, and one of the academy teachers was awake, grading tests, he fought, and rang the alarm bell. All the genin came, except a few from the clans." Shu scowled and Gosain joined him.  
  
"So the clans knew, why are they fighting?" Gosain demanded, needing information.  
  
"It's only a few, nobody knows, but they're fighting each other, and targeting anyone out. We're trying Gosain-san, really, but our skills are limited." Shu sounded desperate.  
  
"Then we have to respond differently." Gosain said. It's not their skills; if Shu is right its only surprise that has them, and disorganization. Gosain knew the numbers of ninja now, Raikage had told him. There are many, many genin; no few clan chuunin and jounin can win. "Are the night blue ninja gone?"  
  
"Most it seems, I've seen some bodies, but they must have moved elsewhere."  
  
"Those are the true targets." Gosain said firmly, and inside he made a decision. "Shu, we need to gather all the genin together, we cannot fight alone, like this. If you unite these clan scion cowards will retreat."  
  
"Where will we go, Gosain-san?" Shu asked, though more hopeful now he still seemed beaten down. "We have no orders, who is the enemy?"  
  
"I don't know that." Gosain answered. "I don't know who started this. We will defend ourselves, and we will get orders."  
  
"How?"  
  
"Raikage-sama." Gosain answered, his decision made. "No matter what has happened we can trust Raikage-sama, he will know what to do, he is the Lightning we must follow."  
  
The four genin near Gosain nodded and he recognized that giving them an objective had mattered almost as much as just being there. These young ninja don't need me to fight for them, they just need a little help realizing where they stand. "Shu, go east, gather every genin between here and the library, meet atop the hospital. You-"Gosain pointed to the girl next to him. "Go south, gather every genin you can find on your way to the academy." He pointed at another genin. "Go north, gather everyone at the Mist war memorial." To the final genin Gosain ordered. "You will head south with me, we will go to Marikima's restaurant. When we get there we will fire off the fireworks he has stashed in the basement. That is the signal to move toward the central city, which you must avoid before then. All of you, stay together, sweep forward in a line, we will link all four groups and converge on Raikage-sama's hall. Does everyone understand?" Gosain asked.  
  
Four heads nodded. "Alright, go, and remember, don't fight alone!"  
  
They dispersed, and Gosain and the genin whose name he didn't know headed south into the nightmare that was Hidden Cloud in the middle of its civil war. There was battle everywhere, save for the quiet of the clan estates on the edge of the village, and the dim sound of stalking battle from the central city. Gosain was almost thankful for the storm, which prevented fire, but he could tell it was a vile thing, and was powering this assault. Though he now had a plan, there remained a question burning in his angry and edgy mind. Who could have caused this? 


	40. The Dark Storm

Author's Notes: So, I didn't post a chapter yesterday, and it wasn't because I couldn't have, but because I forgot to! My apologies everyone, but perhaps it was good to let the suspense accumulate for a little while. This chapter has a lot of revelations in it, and so I'll keep quiet otherwise about it. I think it's a really good chapter though.  
  
Thanks to reviewers and readers!  
  
X2Darklord: Thanks for the complements, I appreciate it. Really the rapid updating was due to me having too much free time over the weekend (I wrote like three chapters on Friday and four on Saturday). When I sit down and write I can just keep going if there's nothing to stop for. This story writes really fast anyway, mostly because its not all that deep, but just an action thing.  
  
The Dark Storm  
  
The Hall of the Raikage is the most ancient and sturdy structure in all of Hidden Cloud village. It is not so much an office as a fortress, built during the end of the Great Ninja Wars, a fortress that would anchor the rest of the village against those dark times. It was built by the labor of many hands, and at the cost of many lives. For even as men and women struggled to construct this safe bastion at the fork of two rivers in what was then called the valley of fog, ninja fought and died around them, some defending the work, and some attacking it. In the end every one of the defending ninja sacrificed themselves to save the fortress and only the woman who became the first Raikage, hidden among the laborers, survived by using the power of the Hall to cleanse the invaders after laying the last brick herself.  
  
Filled with ninja artifacts of power and mementoes of old this place has become a hall for memory and a focus of power for the ninja of Lightning Country. Now, sitting on a dais carved from the wall atop the last brick itself, at the end of the long hall of state, the current Raikage waited.  
  
Against any outside attacker the defenses of this place are assured, the power to call lighting down into the corridors and destroy any those who assault this place, the sky spirits and stormcrows bound into the structure will defend it. To take this place from without would require a ninja force more powerful than any that has walked the Shinobi countries in over a century. Raikage recalled the lessons from long ago. With a bitter sigh he knew the last bit. Except for the one who is coming now.  
  
It was in blue robes and hat, sword at his back that Raikage sat upon that dais, waiting for the door to the hall to open, waiting for the footsteps to echo down the stones. He chaffed to be in this position, stuck in one place and out of the battle while his village was dying in civil war, but he knew it was where he must be. By remaining here I protect this building, I keep the center unclaimed. Only I can use the defenses and protect the artifacts within. So long as I am here, she must come here as well. So it was that the Raikage waited.  
  
I am the seventh of my kind, seventh Raikage, a poor record have we of Lighting. The Leaf ninja have only five Hokages, the Stone a mere three, even Mist and Sand had only six. Seven for us, and I will die tonight, there is no preventing it. Seven for us, and five will have died of no cause but the hands of lightning ninja, including the first. For me, at least I will be in good company, Raikage thought ironically. I will be the second Raikage that my killer has slain.  
  
Then the doors opened.  
  
A slow and steady stride echoed down the stone floor.  
  
Three steps in Raikage concentrated upon the dais, and great arcs of lightning shot up from the floor, to envelop the figure before him, slashing and crackling, enough power to burn away a demon.  
  
Three more steps echoed on the floor.  
  
Raikage made the lightning cease.  
  
"A futile gesture for the mere purpose of futility?" A sonorous voice asked down the hall, and the form gradually came into view.  
  
"Not for futility," Raikage replied. "The lightning tried to harm you, and even if it failed that very act shows you are no ninja of this country."  
  
"Really? You draw that conclusion from this display?" The voice was surprised and amused. "How philosophical, but wrong. What it means is that I am more truly lightning than any of you."  
  
With those words the figure stepped fully into the dim light surrounding the dais.  
  
The ninja who stood before Raikage was a beautiful woman, appearing in her twenties, with midnight blue hair that sank to her knees, a perfectly sculpted face with high, shear features, and eyes like the darkest sapphires. Even her skin was touched with that midnight's ink, giving her an exotic flair that made the hearts of men yearn when they heard her speak.  
  
More than beautiful, she was fit and trim, and power did not surround her, it positively crackled in her presence, her hair sparkled as if electrified and a charge seemed to move about her constantly.  
  
She wore the standard uniform of the ninja of lightning, though made of garments fitted especially for her. As she stepped into the light blades of lightning, which were not the normal blue or yellow, but a viscous black and blue dark shade, extended from her hands like katanas.  
  
"Dark Storm." Raikage whispered, naming her.  
  
"Good evening old enemy." The Dark Storm answered. "It has been eight years I believe?"  
  
"Yes, eight years." Raikage replied. "You failed eight years ago, why couldn't you go off and die somewhere far from here?"  
  
"The storm never dies, you should know that much." She replied, speaking normally, as if making idle chatter, even as she held deadly weapons in her hands. "It simply reemerges somewhere else and gains new strength."  
  
"I would have thought you would come wearing Akatsuki robes and their ring." Raikage remarked. "Yet it seems you continue to defile the lightning forehead protector by wearing it."  
  
"The Akatsuki was merely a means to an end." She replied evenly. "I can hardly be part of that organization and be the new Raikage at the same time." She smiled, a beautiful move if it hadn't been so filled with naked malice. "Don't worry, we have an arrangement, when the Akatsuki rises to power this country will be the center of their control."  
  
"The new Raikage?" Raikage replied. "It seems your ambitions have not dulled, but that will never happen."  
  
"Please, you may have stopped me once soldier, by cunning timing, but you have never been able to match my strength. This city is collapsing, and all those who were loyal to you have been eliminated, if you ever had any allies to begin with. My order will come." Her voice was matter of fact, simple, as if everything was already accomplished.  
  
"There is one question I have," Raikage said slowly. "Why did you choose this point?"  
  
"I suppose it does no harm to tell you," She smiled again. "As you will soon be dead. I will at least offer the one who thwarted me once this much." She paused. "I did not choose this moment. My affiliate in the Akatsuki, Mehize Kizen, failed his attempt to get rid of Draci Xi. Now that irritating dragon ninja is getting far too close to finding me, so I was forced to move."  
  
Inwardly Raikage smiled. So, it seems I accomplished that much, Xi is on her trail, she attacked before she wished. I hope it has been enough.  
  
"Now, answer a question of my own." The Dark Storm looked at Raikage curiously. "Why are you so calm knowing you are going to die?"  
  
"Do you think," Raikage's voice was completely serious. "That I did not know this day would come, that I was accepting my eventual death when I became Raikage eight years ago. I have long accepted and readied myself for this day."  
  
"Apparently without success." She remarked. "Well then, since you are so ready for this, it is time for you to die."  
  
Raikage raised his head from the ground, fingering his hat with his left hand, his right hand twitching toward his sword. "I know you will kill me Dark Storm, but as I soldier I fully intend to take my enemy with me!"  
  
"Please, you haven't the speed to draw that blade before I reach you." She raised her crackling blades of lightning.  
  
You're not as smart as your think you are. Raikage leapt to he feet, and the Dark Storm surged forward with the same motion, incredibly fast.  
  
The Raikage's right hand moved to his sword, but his left hand grabbed his hat and ripped. "Hidden Ribbon Blade!"  
  
The blade, thin as the fabric that made up his hat, and packed into a ribbon that spun free with that expert tug, flashed around Raikage in a circle, screaming around and slashing through the air with metallic strain. That blade could cut into anything, and the Dark Storm was forced back for a moment.  
  
Raikage leapt up, pulling his true sword free, discarding the hidden blade. He reached the ceiling, and slashed straight through it, coming free to stand upon the roof behind the hole he made. There he felt the wind and rain lash down upon him, even as he flipped back further, sword held straight before him.  
  
The Dark Storm burst through the roof in a blast of lightning, coming to stand in front of Raikage. "So, it seems you will force me to exercise myself a little, but really, that sword is not enough to offer a resistance to me."  
  
A single seal formed around Raikage's blade. "Instant Readiness no jutsu!" His robes vanished, and in a single moment he was clad in the battle garb of a combat ninja, armored both legs and arms, a mask covering his lower face and upper head. A second sword extended from his back, and shuriken and kunai adorned that armor, the armor of a ninja ready for war.  
  
"Well, well, the faithful soldier at his post once more." The Dark Storm made a show of looking around. She formed no seals, but then armor formed of lightning covered her entire body, thin and crackling. "Pity your post is so lonely."  
  
"What do you mean?" Raikage barked, his eyes narrowed.  
  
"Upon the roof of the Raikage's hall, wearing battle armor and bearing the sword that has seen a hundred battles in his hands, bereft of allies and abandoned by all. This is the end of the Lightning country's greatest battlefield ninja, it is laughable." And the Dark Storm laughed then, and thunder careened across the sky, seeming to laugh with her. "This is what you built with eight years, you have no jounin or chuunin to stand with you, and yet you dare say that I am not of Lighting?"  
  
The jibe struck deep, but Raikage gritted his teeth. "Enough, you will go no further while I live." He raised his sword to guard in both hands, and his feet shifted to battle stance.  
  
Fireworks split the sky to the south, but though the two ninja atop the roof remarked it, neither spoke. They gathered their chakra and made ready.  
  
Then it began.  
  
Raikage dashed forward, closing the distance to his foe, ready to strike. She dodged aside, faster than he, but his sword had greater speed than his body.  
  
The brilliant blades of black lightning sliced the air, and between them passed a sword made of much used steel, they passed each other by, and the two ninja spun, coming again.  
  
That aerial dance came around once more, and Raikage rolled under the Dark Storm's weapons and stabbed up, only to find she was behind him. He kicked out, striking her sparking armor, feeling the pain it caused, but forcing her back. So, the first blow is hers. He decided.  
  
"Your swordsmanship has improved." The Dark Storm remarked from before him. "It seems I will have to do something a bit more."  
  
"Shuriken Kage Bushin!" Raikage launched his weapon at her, cloning it a thousand times in midair. "Metallic spark meld!"  
  
The shuriken condensed together into a wave of sharp spines, crashing through the air like a living tendril of fog, to rend and tear.  
  
"Black Lightning Shatterstorm!" A bolt of black lightning thick as a man's head burst from the Dark Storm's mouth, to impact that moving wave of shuriken, blasting them asunder and sending lethal darts of shadow everywhere.  
  
She simply stood firm as they impacted against her armor, the clones disintegrating before struck, but Raikage was forced to dodge aside.  
  
He rolled to his feet some distance away. Damn! She's not even breathing hard! What a monster you truly are, no wonder Xi has become so strong, trying to kill you.  
  
He raised his blade up to guard, and then stabbed it higher, jabbing into the sky. "Rain of blades no jutsu!"  
  
They fell just like rain, metal blades fitting among the droplets of the storm, a hundred or more the falling swords, set to impale anything in their reach.  
  
The Dark Strom flipped away, moving with great speed through the falling weapons, nimbly avoiding any hits. Raikage dashed in to strike her, but lightning arced out from her hands and grabbed one of his blades even as he raised his ninja-to to cut her. Her other hand formed the seal, and the weapon reversed its course, slamming itself deep into his side, and pushing him away.  
  
The pain was cold and stinging, terrible, but Raikage ignored it, he had suffered many stab wounds in his days on the battlefield, and every true soldier could keep fighting no matter the wounds. He was up in an instant, dodging the three blasts of black lightning that targeted his rolling form, and he pulled the blade free of his side, grimacing as he did so. To think she could do that.  
  
"You have grown stronger, strong enough to amuse me for a time." The Dark Storm said. "But it is not enough. This ends now." She raised her hands, and bolts of lightning arched between them, building to tremendous force.  
  
Standing there, holding his bleeding side, Raikage tried to think of a way to avoid the coming attack, but could see nothing.  
  
"Raikage-sama!" The naked shout broke though the storm lash and the crackle of lightning around the Dark Storm, as a whirlwind of metal, long links of chain, impacted against the woman, carrying her charge into the ground, though lightning curled around her and protected her from harm.  
  
Kabure Gosain, with forty genin in two lines behind him, landed on the rooftop.  
  
The Dark Storm looked at them all with base contempt.  
  
"It seems," Raikage breathed, recognizing that the wound he had been given was terribly serious. "That I have one chuunin to stand with me after all." And he gave the Dark Storm a withering smile.  
  
She turned for a moment to face Gosain, and a lashing bolt of lightning snapped out from her hands, faster than he could move or react, it came toward him, and he could only watch as it projected toward space between his eyes.  
  
Then Raikage was there, catching the blast on his sword blade, taking it into himself with shudders and shakes of pain, but he did not fall. "Don't dismiss me so lightly woman." He spat.  
  
Still watching the Dark Storm, Raikage inclined his head to Gosain.  
  
"Raikage-sama." Gosain spoke hurriedly. "We have cleared the village of traitors to you, but many remain. The genin and I, and there are more of them, are all I could find loyal to you. Please Raikage-sama, command us!" Gosain's voice had a strident desperation. "Give the order to sweep away the traitors and reclaim this village!"  
  
"No." Raikage said slowly, levelly. "No, I cannot do that, Gosain. The village is lost. Too many have turned to this one's banner or stood aside as weaklings. Even should you cleanse them all, no one here can oppose this one." He gestured with his sword. "The Dark Storm."  
  
The name sent shockwaves through the genin, who had all heard the whispers, the terrifying stories, but Gosain stood firm. "Then give us the order to fight and die with you, Raikage-sama, we are not afraid."  
  
"No!" Raikage refused. "No, Gosain, you are my last loyal chuunin, and to you I give my last command." He paused; making absolutely certain Gosain understood what he was saying. "Take these genin and scatter them all, have them flee this place, only to come back when the evil of the Dark Storm is cleansed. Flee to those far from here, rally a resistance. But Gosain, from you I must demand one final thing, this woman must die, and there is only one who can do it. Find Draci Xi, and tell him I command that he come home and kill the Dark Storm!"  
  
"Raikage-sama!" Gosain began to protest.  
  
"If you are my ninja Gosain, if you are loyal to lightning, you will do this thing!" Raikage screamed over the crash of thunder.  
  
Gosain nodded. "All of you!" He yelled at the genin. "Go!"  
  
With a terribly sad look Kabure Gosain turned his back on his Raikage and leapt from the rooftop.  
  
"Touching." The Dark Storm muttered. "But you shall not escape to trouble me."  
  
She raised her hand and lightning crackled between them. She launched the great bolts after Gosain and many, many genin. "Die all you fools!" Her voice held true malice to mirror the storm above for the first time.  
  
"Lightning shield no jutsu!"  
  
Black lightning struck pure lightning, blue and glorious, and a tremendous thunderclap spilt the air, knocking both the Raikage and Dark Storm to their knees.  
  
Raikage stood a moment later, wracking pain in his eyes, but burning pride there as well. "You shall not have them, you cannot kill this village." He hissed, his voice cutting below the storm.  
  
"You will not stop, not you, you mere soldier." She retorted. "I will finish you and catch them."  
  
"You are a fool Dark Storm." Raikage replied. "If there is one thing a true soldier understands, it is the sacrifice necessary to protect his comrades. I have already made one part of it. I broke the roof of the hall, and you foolishly broke it wider. With that flaw all its powers are useless and all the artifacts within are sealed, it will be months before you can use them."  
  
A hideous inhuman rage took over the Dark Storm's body, lightning hissed from her mouth, but she seemed beyond words.  
  
Now, Gosain, please, you must succeed. Raikage cast his pledge to the winds. Let the clouds cover your passage and run with the speed of the very lightning itself. I will stop this one here. "The second part is this!" Raikage needed no seals, but he took he sword in both hands and placed it so the blade faced outward between his eyes. "Anthem of the Last Rear Guard!"  
  
The Dark Storm's jaw dropped. "You cannot have the strength to use that technique!"  
  
To save my people I can do anything required of me! Was Raikage's last thought, as his body and sword crumbled to dust in the rain before the Dark Storm's eyes.  
  
From every piece of dust formed a suit of armor and a sword, form after form they came, empty shells, yet standing with all the strength of a living man, and empty helmets that saw everything. Hundreds upon hundreds they numbered, standing in ranks like an army of ninja, and every last one wearing the forehead protector with the symbol of lightning.  
  
Hundreds of swords were raised to strike, and as one those empty sandals stepped forward and charged.  
  
Lightning formed around the Dark Storm's hands and feet, and she screamed in a cackling voice. "This is far from enough to finish me!"  
  
When it was over the last genin, a volunteer who had braved death and worse to watch their Raikage's fate, saw the last empty suit of armor crumple, struck by a sword of black lightning, but the Dark Storm was covered in a hundred cuts or more, and lay exhausted and depleted upon the rooftop. Through her forehead protector was a single line, a flat cut that slashed completely through the symbol of the Lightning ninja. 


	41. To the Edges of the Storm

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: And it continues, I've finally revealed my nasty villain who was much foreshadowed, and all sorts of destruction have been unleashed. So, here comes the progression forward.  
  
Thanks to all those who find a moment to review!  
  
To the Edges of the Storm  
  
For five miles Gosain could comprehend only one thing, proceeding away, getting closer to Konoha, to the only place where he might find Xi. Five miles, the fastest he had ever run, careening headlong through all of the village that he had thought of as his home for eighteen years of life, the place he had held to the ideals he had constructed as his core when the people around him faded into the dark. This place that now felt foreign and wrong, that had turned black in his vision and crumbled under an endless swath of black tendrils, clouds of the Dark Storm's power, the horrifying weapons of her influence.  
  
After five miles he stopped, and he recognized what was going on, seeing through the mass of confusion and torment that had overcome him, even while he had acted automatically, directing the genin to run, to find the borders, the ANBU there, the commanders of distant outposts, anyone who might be loyal, hoping that Raikage had scattered those he trusted throughout the country. Shu he had sent south, depending on the genin to go all the way to the islands, to run the gauntlet that would surely follow to try and block away the ninja stationed there, those who would surely never follow the Dark Storm. Gosain realized he had almost surely sent the genin to his death, but that it had to be done.  
  
Everything is terrible, and we have no choices, we are slaves to our own self-destruction, trying to react and save something, anything. Gosain pulled his chains tight in around his body, wrapping the heavy metal he had carried so long like a protective covering. I am the bearer of Raikage's last command, I must not fail. It was a directive Gosain fully intended to obey, but he knew that it might well be impossible. They are already coming, surely. Even if he stopped her, and Gosain had to believe his Raikage had, knew he was dead if not, she will send minions.  
  
He had seen them, the ninja clad in midnight blue, the cold killers who served the Dark Storm directly, her minions. He had seen them, and fought them, and killed them, and they were tough. I have strength, but I have been fighting, and now I cannot rest, but I must run. So he stood up and ran, dashing from tree to tree, not pausing, though his breath was short and he had little energy. Not enough rest, fighting all night long, and now I must run all the way to the border and farther, I must get to Konoha, Xi was going to return there, he must be there.  
  
Though he ran through the dark with all his focus, as the rain pelted down and the storm gradually moderated, the thought came creeping up in the back of Gosain's mind. They are already coming.  
  
Dawn came crashing in from the east, as if the brightness attempted to make up for the darkness of the night before, and Gosain noted it only as the brightness crept over his back. He was headed southwest, and refused to stop. He had discarded many things already, his shuriken and kunai, his medical supplies, his flak jacket, his climbing tools, all his implements except his chains, which he refused to forsake. It will come to battle yet, and I must have these. For water Gosain had filled his bottles from a fountain as he ran through a town, and as dawn broke he stole drying bread from a baker's window, to eat as he ran, in a desperate attempt to acquire the strength to keep going.  
  
All through the course of the night Gosain had stopped only twice. He had not slept, but he sat grasping water and resting his aching legs. His muscles moaned and his body ached, it burned with every step, but he refused to stop running. The battle is my only margin and it ended moments after Raikage fell, my only lead is the time it took orders to be relayed and others to depart, and my lack of caution.  
  
Indeed Gosain was being reckless, and as he slashed away his pant legs while moving he realized just how reckless. A ninja running through the trees in broad daylight, watching for nothing, listening only for the approach from behind. If there are warders ahead of me I will likely die in their ambush. Despite this, Gosain kept running as fast as he could manage, the miles pounding away under his feet, his endurance thankfully hardened by so many missions and his years of desperation and carrying many pounds of heavy chain constantly. I can make the border, tired as I am, I can make the border, if I run the entire day and into tomorrow I will reach the border by midday, I must keep running. I must depend on Raikage, that the Dark Storm was not strong enough to leave anyone behind in her attack.  
  
Throughout the day then, Gosain ran, and ran, pausing for breath ad ease of the pain in his side and legs, while every part of him screamed to stop, but he was obstinate, and would not stop. I learned the hard way that you cannot stop, in the winter in Stone, I did this, and I carried a comrade up the mountainside. I made the trek then and I shall do so now. If I can run straight I will succeed. Despite this run, my chakra is stable, I can fight if I must, but if I must it will get harder after that, I must postpone battle as long as possible.  
  
The day passed in the agony of running, until even the pain bled away from Gosain's feet and he knew recovery from this would not be easy. Still, they are not behind me yet. My trail is easy enough to follow, but if they are too far behind they will not be able to catch me overnight. I will make the border. I can!  
  
At midnight luck was upon Gosain, and he hit a familiar location, and found an ANBU cache. There was food there, and water, and most importantly. A soldier pill! Gosain secreted the pill beneath his forehead protector, knowing that he must save it; it would not increase his pace now. I will need it when battle comes, I will need it desperately.  
  
When dawn broke again Gosain felt his endurance hit a wall, and he collapsed to the ground. Only a few more miles, he thought through the haze of exhaustion that had enveloped his mind. I can rest a bit.  
  
Then he heard them.  
  
It was a quiet thing, the tread of a ninja's sandals on packed earth, but it was enough for Gosain, the sound he had anticipated for many hours of frenzied near madness. He reached up with his left hand and grabbed the soldier pill. As he swallowed the powerful stimulant and nutrient package, knowing that it would do further damage later, he listened for how many were coming. One, two, three, four pairs. A platoon. Wait, again, another platoon, and then again, three platoons, coming from different directions. Well, it seems she really does hate Xi. Time to go.  
  
Commanding the pain in his legs to be silent, Gosain stood. I have to separate the platoons, put some distance between them. That means I have to head southeast sharply, make a turn. More miles, his mind balked, but his will held on. I am cursed, but I know how to keep fighting a curse!  
  
Getting up and running was enough to alert the ninja behind him shortly, and he could tell that it had become a race, but Gosain recognized that they were not truly gaining on him. They are going a reasonable pace, to avoid tiring themselves, after all, they have come as far as I. They have to wait for me to tire or they won't have the strength to overtake me. The problem was that regardless of how fast he ran they would overtake them. I can make the border, but no father, even with the soldier pill; it will come to battle soon. In fact, I cannot beat this first group to the border.  
  
An hour in the hot sun Gosain ran on, his quickest pace now little more than a slow jog, but his pursuers did not that much better. There were four miles between him and the border when Gosain turned. Time to face the traitors. Anger was dangerous at this point, with his mind in the state it was, but Gosain needed that anger, needed the strength it would give him.  
  
Time to die you four bastards! Gosain surprised them.  
  
He came in from below, charging up from the ground, his chains whirling about, and they were caught off guard, they had not expected that he would have the strength to fight them. Fools! Now I must strike quickly. Gosain reached into the hooks on his pole, and ripped out both chains suddenly, letting them fly freely toward his opponents.  
  
The two ninja in front of him were caught off guard and dodged aside and sharp lengths of chain came flying past their bodies. The third ninja had no time to react when Gosain simply slammed into a tree, grunting with the pain it caused to strained bones and muscles, and feeling something pull in his right shoulder, but he was able to push off and change direction. "Die traitor!" The ninja, not expecting an attack, watched blankly as Gosain's pole slammed into his chest, the hook penetrating and ripping into his heart.  
  
There Gosain stood exposed and vulnerable, and a kunai slammed into his right side, taking him in the stomach, but he was past pain anyway, and so he simply turned and formed a seal. "Seeking Chains of Charge." He whispered. The hooks on his pole took on opposite charges as he converted chakra into electricity, and his chains, standing behind two ninja, glowed in tandem.  
  
The two ninja had no time to do anything but scream and flailing chains ripped through their bodies and slashed their way back to Gosain, kunai heads whirling about like unleashed tornadoes.  
  
The fourth ninja looked at Gosain and watched the battered ninja, holding whirling chains, turn toward him. The man managed to form slow seals, despite his fear at this inhuman runner who had attacked them. "Lightning missile!" It was a simple jutsu, a blast of lightning that attacked the enemy. Gosain didn't bother to dodge, but simply took the hit with his right shoulder, and felt the whole arm go limp, but he stepped forward and whirled his pole around with his left hand.  
  
Chains wrapped around the vulnerable ninja's neck, and they squeezed closed as electricity pulled them together. There was a sharp crack, and it was over.  
  
Four miles, only four miles to the border. Gosain turned around, and with one hand secured his chains on his good shoulder. He was bleeding and battered, if he did not get to shelter before the day ended he would surely die, but none of that mattered to him. I can't die; I'm cursed to always be the one who comes back. I'll make the border, and someone will be there, I'll survive this yet.  
  
So Gosain ran on, and eight lightning ninja tracked him, and these would not be surprised.  
  
"Rend!" The blades of chakra cut into the tree trunk, slashing and cutting, making a mess of the bark and ripping it all about, but the cuts were not clear, and they grew shallower as they went, until the final upstroke was little more than a scratch on the bark.  
  
"That's a bit better I think Dar." Shiren remarked. "It would certainly hurt."  
  
Dar pointed to the mark Shiren had made on the other side of the tree, and to all the series of marks he had made going around next to it. "Not good enough though." Her marks were perfect, straight cuts that proceeded all the way through the tree, enough to easily kill a man. "I still need to do it some more."  
  
"Alright," Shiren said. "But don't go too far. That's only part of our mission here."  
  
They stood in a wooden grove on the edge of the Lightning country border, far northeast in Fire country. It was their third such site, they had chosen a different one each day, and this was the furthest south of any they had chosen, but they had found nothing. It was confusing, especially for Shiren, who had expected to find someone, she knew the patterns of Lightning ninja, and their actions should have attracted some watchers. I don't like this, something has happened, and I don't know what it is. "Well Dar, I suppose you might as well go again. There's nothing I can tell you, except keep doing the move."  
  
"Damnable precision." Dar muttered. "Everything has to be done the hardest possible way." He turned to face the tree again. This is the last open area; I'll have to pick a new tree afterwards. Dar focused his chakra and strength, focusing on the image of blades of chakra, feeling the power, and channeling the energy. I will use as much as I can this time, no holding back. He decided.  
  
"Rend!"  
  
The word hung clear and crisp in the air for a moment, and it reached for some distance through the woods, with few leaves now as winter was still slowly fading. Creeping through the woods holding chains over his shoulder with his good hand, and holding back the blood with the arm he could no longer feel a ninja heard the word. Rend? Dimly Gosain remembered that word. Rend? Yes, rend, a...a jutsu! Why was it important? I wonder...oh, yes, Xi used that jutsu. Xi and that boy, Neji.  
  
Xi!  
  
Gosain was dimly aware that the voice had not been one he recognized, but regardless he knew the term meant people, and it didn't mean the people pursuing him. All that was left was to reach them. Not far, a few yards, just a few more steps.  
  
Dar's lines cut deep into the tree this time, completing the whole move. They were ragged around the edges still, chakra leaking and dulling the blades, but the rend was enough to kill a ninja easily. As he finished the move Dar wobbled. "Whoa, takes a lot of chakra, doing that." He gasped in a deep breath.  
  
"Be careful Dar," Shiren said. "We need to be able to react quickly." Then, almost as if her words called it up, she heard a noise. "What was that?"  
  
The two dragon ninja's heads turned, and from behind a tree they saw a figure emerge, stumbling forward, putting one foot and then another before him. A ninja, carrying long chains over his left shoulder, and bleeding seriously from a gash in his right side, the kunai still protruding from it. The only moderately clean thing on him was the forehead protector, bearing the lightning symbol.  
  
"Gosain!" Shiren gasped in shock, and was at his side in moments. She grabbed his wounded side. "This is bad. Gosain, why are you here? What's happened?"  
  
"Raikage...orders..." Gosain mumbled, his eyes barely seeing what was in front of him. "Shiren? Find...Xi, tell him...Dark...Storm. Dark Storm." A twig snapped in the distance. "They're...coming?" Gosain fell over into Shiren's arms.  
  
"Gosain? Gosain?" Shiren grabbed his face. "He's alive." She told Dar. "But I can't believe what happened to him. We have to get word to Xi now."  
  
"He is pursued." Dar said, frowning. "We're in trouble. I've used up too much chakra to fight heavily, and we can't carry him in his condition. How do we protect this ninja?"  
  
"Xi." Shiren said firmly, and she stood up. "Xi has to know, he can get here. Neji too."  
  
"But how?"  
  
Shiren's hands were already forming the seals. "I don't care what it costs me, I won't let Gosain die." Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle. She bit her left index finger and slammed her hands down. Something fast, please, however it is judged, a fast one. "Dragon summoning no jutsu!" She did not put all her chakra into the summons, but a great deal, enough so that she could not fight long past this.  
  
The leaves flashed around them, and the air swirled, and then a dragon floated before Shiren. The dragon was short and red in color, with short whiskers and a high fin on its back, perhaps eight feet long, a different type than she had seen before, but Xi had told her, a Shen Lung. "All honor to thee Shen Lung." Shiren said, even as those eyes bored into her. She refused to even give them her time, pushing aside fear for action, demanding to be heard. "I have no time, I must ask you to take word to Draci Xi and Draci Neji in Konoha. Tell them that Gosain is with us, pursued and terribly wounded. Tell them he said the Dark Storm." Shiren did not know the name well, but she knew rumors, she remembered vaguely. It is important, Xi will come. "Go swiftly please, I will honor you suitably later."  
  
"I am Weshiri Draci Shiren." The Shen Lung replied as it spun in midair. "Your need for haste is known." And then it was gone, flashing through the air like a great bird.  
  
"Just in time." Dar said from beside her. "There are ninja coming. Four of them."  
  
"Protect Gosain, Dar." Shiren told him. "I will do this."  
  
Half my chakra, and four enemies. This is my first fight as a dragon ninja. I must strike hard and remember how Xi fights, strike to kill. Shiren took position in a tree away. I am sorry Dar, but it seems you are the bait.  
  
They came in swiftly, in two groups, two lightning ninja landed in front of Dar, who in turn stood in front of the collapsed Gosain. "Get out of the way Stone ninja." One of them spat. "This is not your business."  
  
"It is mine!" Shiren shouted. "Dragon Wind!" Let this work, it must! She gathered together as much of her chakra as she could manage, forming the knots of it, feeling them press against her fingers. Then she pushed them out and let the blast loose.  
  
Shiren's aim was not sure, but her technique was effective anyway.  
  
The tree in front of Dar exploded, sending shards of wood everywhere, blasting horizontally with enough force to strike like arrows.  
  
"Flat Facet Strike!" Dar whirled his sword and deflected those darts coming at him and Gosain, though he almost lost his grip on the weapon as his chakra slipped slowly away.  
  
The other two ninja were not so lucky; a blast of spines slammed into them, slashing apart the front of their bodies, and driving them to the ground.  
  
Shiren did not wait, but spotted one of the other midnight blue ninja standing in the trees, and flipped up two kunai, dropping into her stance as she took the first step forward. One kunai raised and the other down.  
  
The ninja at which Shiren charged did not try to dodge, but jumped forward, undercutting her move and moving toward Dar. It would have worked, if he had been her target.  
  
"Thunder and Lightning Strike!" The other ninja, pulling shuriken to throw when Shiren went flying past, was so shocked at the sudden attack, which required a turn he didn't believe possible, that he raised only an arm to block.  
  
Thunder struck the arm and slammed it aside, bloody, then Shiren pivoted and the lightning drove the kunai into the ninja's heart.  
  
That left the final ninja, staring at Dar. His hands flashed through seals, and Dar grabbed Gosain quickly. This is the last of my chakra, but I have to jump!  
  
Focusing his energy Dar launched himself and Gosain upwards, so that the blast of black lightning struck the tree behind him.  
  
The lightning ninja turned to strike again, and then screams as shuriken and kunai slammed into him, a trio of Shiren's spark stars taking him to the ground, cutting and burning. He gasped, and then lay still.  
  
Dar landed next to Shiren, and put Gosain down. The two dragon ninja were gasping for breath, and Gosain moaned in pain from his semi-conscious state. "Is that it?" Shiren gasped. "I haven't much more energy to fight."  
  
"I cannot fight." Dar said quietly. "I doubt I could do more than stand. I can't carry Gosain."  
  
Cocking her head Shiren heard a sound in the distance. "Dar, dodge!" She grabbed Gosain and jumped away, hiding behind a bush.  
  
Dar stepped aside as shuriken rained down, raising his blade, but he could not run far.  
  
Four ninja landed in front of him. They were clad in midnight blue, and had dark eyes. A woman led them, and she looked at Dar contemptuously. These four seemed hardly tired at all. "What a mess." The servant of the Dark Storm said. "Eliminate this one."  
  
"Lightning Element: Charged Spark Missiles!" Shiren threw two kunai at the weapons the other ninja had left on the ground, betting on a chance to strike at them, even though she revealed her position.  
  
"Thunderclap no jutsu!" One of the dark ninja countered, and a blast of shocking wind blasted aside the kunai.  
  
Shiren went to dodge, but the others were already acting. "Thunderclap no jutsu!" Two more blasts of thunder, and these struck in front of her, slamming her into a tree trunk. Shiren slid to the ground, grunting in pain. She tried to get up, but saw the ready hands holding seals over her. I can't get up fast enough; I don't have enough chakra left to fight.  
  
"You seem strong, but your chances have run out." The female leader mocked. "There is nothing else you can do. Hand over Kabure Gosain and perhaps I'll let you live a while."  
  
"No!" Shiren raised her head and retorted. "We'll not treat with you!"  
  
One of the ninja kicked her in the head then, and she collapsed to the ground, ears ringing and pain breaking apart her thoughts.  
  
Dar looked on as the ninja turned back to him. "Quite a nice sword you have." She commented. "But even that is useless to you now, there is nothing you can do, put down your weapon and surrender Gosain." That she was even treating with them at all was a sign this ninja respected Dar and Shiren's efforts. "I have no quarrel with your country, this is over, give up."  
  
Dar shook his head. I cannot surrender Gosain, I cannot let Shiren fall. It is my fault, I spent too much chakra or we could have fled, this fight is my fault, and I must take whatever steps are required to fix it, even is I damn myself to do so. "There is one thing I can still do." Dar said slowly. He took his sword and brought his left hand to the blade, making a long cut along his palm.  
  
"What are you..." The ninja's eyes narrowed. "Stop him!"  
  
Too late now...Dar spun the sword in his hand, pointing the blade downward, and then with a single motion he drove it into the ground, making a sign on the ground with his bloody palm. "Blood and Earth Unsealing!"  
  
Three kunai were thrown at his head.  
  
The crystalline sword glowed fiercely red, and blood seemed to seep into its blade. Dar's eyes went blank, empty and crystalline, the same structure as the sword. The kunai came in, and he flipped.  
  
A full backflip, and the blade came around, slicing through each kunai in turn, leaving perfectly sundered metal pieces on the ground.  
  
Dar stood straight, and his empty eyes looked at all four ninja at once. The sword moved perpendicular to the ground, held at his right shoulder high, as a samurai might hold a katana before he charged, even though it was not a katana.  
  
Looking at him the four ninja cringed, for Dar's eyes narrowed past the point when he should be able to see, but he was still somehow looking at them. His mouth moved in a mechanical fashion, and he spoke in a voice that came from no human tongue, but seemed squeezed from the earth. "My bindings are broken, and it is time to kill."  
  
"Kill him!" The Dark Storm's ninja shouted.  
  
"Futile." Dar moved forward, though he did not seem to move so much as he was dragged forward by the sword. Regardless, he advanced upon his foes.  
  
Weapons came at him, and a blast of thunder exploded at his head. Dar's face bruised, but his motion did not stop. "Heart Piercing Cut!"  
  
The lightning ninja carried swords, and one had drawn his, but that crystalline blade slashed straight through it, its point splitting it apart without any resistance at all, and then it sank into his chest. "My how it is to taste blood again." The inhuman voice spoke.  
  
Then the slaughter began.  
  
The three remaining ninja dodged and circled, but Dar moved with inhuman speed and power, a strength not his own, and nothing, not blade nor jutsu could stop those cuts. The Crystal the Pierces the Heart of the World hummed in his hands, and he cut through two ninja with spinning strikes and slashes, leaving only pieces of men behind.  
  
The female ninja who had commanded them did not try to fight Dar, but fell back, and was about to turn and run, when Dar appeared next to her. "Foolish."  
  
She spun away, dodging and weaving through the trees.  
  
The sword raised high into its samurai downcut form once more. "True ninja strike!"  
  
The intervening distance between Dar and the Dark Storm's servant seemed to vanish, and that crystalline blade chopped down and through her body from a grand distance away, leaving a slashed and destroyed body as Dar turned around.  
  
Then the air stirred and wind blasted, and two dragons crested the treetops. Shiren, who had seen the slaughter in a strange detached state, now saw the arrival of Neji and Xi. Two Shen Lungs, different sizes but equally impressive, carried the other two dragon ninja. Neji rode Weshiri, and Xi Sirachi. Neji, seeing the situation, leapt off the dragon's back and landed in the clearing, standing in front of Dar. Weshiri disappeared the moment he did so.  
  
Xi catapulted off Sirachi, to land on the branch of a tree above, suspicious, his ready eyes scanned the battlefield.  
  
Neji looked and saw Shiren and Gosain, and Dar standing over the dead bodies of the lightning ninja, still holding his crystalline blade in both hands, and needed to know what was happening. "Dar, what happened?" He demanded.  
  
Dar spun about, and Neji saw those strange crystalline eyes for a moment, and so did Xi.  
  
Dar's sword came up.  
  
"Neji, Kaiten now!" Xi barked, and he leapt down.  
  
Neji knew to obey Xi's command, he knew the older ninja's experience, and he trusted Xi in that moment.  
  
"Kaiten!"  
  
Chakra spun around, and Dar's sword was brushed aside, unable to penetrate that blast that blew it back. Dar skidded to a stop a distance away, his arms bruised, but his movements were unaffected.  
  
"Dar, what's going on?" Neji shouted.  
  
"You can't fight him Neji." Xi replied, landing in front of him. "He unsealed his sword, it is acting through him now. Get back and protect Gosain and Shiren, it will try and kill anyone it can."  
  
"What makes you think you can fight me?" The strange voice, which Xi immediately recognized as the sword's, spoke.  
  
"You are burning through his blood to power your motion." Xi replied. "Only Dar allows you to live, if he dies you are banished back to dormancy." Xi gave Dar a half-smile. "I learned all about that weapon since I suspected you would find me." Xi put his hands through seals, and then his palms together. He separated them, and they were covered in lightning. "Lightning Swords no jutsu. With this, I can fight you."  
  
The sword raised itself in Dar's hands. It said nothing more.  
  
Xi raised the blades of lightning that projected from the triangles formed by his hands. "Dar!" He shouted. "I can fight like this, but I cannot stop you, only kill you. I am a dragon ninja; it is all I can do. If you want to live you must stop the blade yourself. Listen Dar, you will have to defeat it!"  
  
"Silence!" The sword spat, and it attacked.  
  
They spun about each other, crackling blades of lightning holding off the blade of crystal, dancing about, and leaping from tree to tree. Xi's precision matched the sword's perfect execution, and there were no openings, any strike would be mutually lethal.  
  
Xi slammed down into the dirt, rolling upright and around, bringing his feet into striking range, but he did not hit, only dodged aside. "Dar, help me!" He ordered. "Don't make me kill you!" Xi's thoughts were bitter as he forewent using back rake. For the second time I am fighting to save my student from himself, but I can only offer opposition, Dar, remember Neji's struggle, save yourself. You are not the sword's slave, you are a dragon ninja!  
  
Neji watched the fight through Byakugan, though what his eyes showed him horrified him. Red energy, the color of blood mixed with dirt, a chakra no human possessed, streamed out from Dar and into the sword. Then it was pumped back into his chakra circulatory system, manipulating his body like a puppet. If this keeps up, Dar will die no matter what Xi does, his tenkentsu will burst. Neji stood back, however, knowing he had to honor Xi's request. Without those blades I could not match the reach of that sword, since no weapon can block it. He could always cut me.  
  
Xi dodged aside from another fierce attack, and jabbed the lightning swords back to force the sword a distance away. Then Dar's foot struck one of the fallen lightning ninja. It would have meant nothing, the sword did not depend on his balance, but his foot hit a shuriken pouch, and four smoke bombs ignited.  
  
Instantly Xi took advantage of the chance. He slammed his lightning swords across Dar's hands, burning the sensation from the nerves, knocking them limp and empty.  
  
The sword continued its cut without Dar's hands to guide it.  
  
Xi jumped away as the blade pivoted in midair, and Neji watched as those streams of red chakra continued to flow from Dar's body to the blade without physical contact, but he also saw the crystalline clouding clear from Dar's eyes. "Dar!" Neji shouted. "You must help Xi!"  
  
Freed of its human baggage, the sword spun ever faster in midair, whirling like a shuriken, but a thousand times as lethal.  
  
Xi spun away, flipping through the air, dodging back as fast as he could, but the sword pursued him. Xi jumped away, leaping for the trees, and the sword streaked up after him.  
  
Now, perhaps a chance. "Aerial Reversal!" Xi shifted in midair, and came back down above the sword, not bothering to throw weapons at it. The sword pivoted, nicking Xi's flak jacket, and pursued him down.  
  
Xi passed over Dar's head by less than a foot, and the Crystal that Pierces the Heart of the World followed. "Dar!" Xi screamed the order at the last moment.  
  
Dar's hands reached up and his palms caught the sword between them. That merciless edge slashed his hands, but Dar's gaze held firm. "Enough." He said. "Enough." He repeated. "Go back to sleep, beast." He moved his hands, and the sword slid into his scabbard.  
  
The moment the weapon hit that hole and slid into it, though it scrapped the edge in protest, Dar fell to the ground.  
  
Xi did not bother to catch him, but ripped the scabbard off his belt. "Neji, get bandages and contain the cuts to his hands." He told him. "Then treat Gosain. I will deal with this."  
  
A pity I do not know seals, Xi thought as he held the weapon in its scabbard. Still, this thing's power flows from blood. Xi took his nekode and pulled the blade free of its scabbard, hanging it up the tines. He did not touch it, or let it fall to the ground, but carefully ran bandages down its entire length, cleaning off the blood that had stuck to it, Dar's blood, the only blood that could cling to that blade of crystal. When that was done Xi put the blade back in the scabbard, and he placed the weapon back on Dar's belt. Since he has beaten it, perhaps it will stay quiet for the remainder.  
  
"What just happened?" Neji asked Xi.  
  
"A complication we did not need." Xi replied. "But I think that has handled it. Are the others alright?"  
  
"I am okay." Shiren answered for herself, standing somewhat groggy beside Neji. "Gosain needs healing soon, he is barely conscious, he looks like he's run forever."  
  
"Only Dar's hands are injured, he seems tolerable otherwise." Neji replied, and he pointed to Dar slowly standing.  
  
"Then help Dar and Shiren." Xi told them. "I will get Gosain. We will bring him back to Konoha and Tsunade." Xi's face grew grim, but he was silent. You had best be all right Gosain; I will need your words. I will know them now! 


	42. The Tale of the Storm

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Well, the long wait is over, for I am finally revealing the secrets of Xi's past, so those of you who've been waiting, pay attention now. It's time to unleash the hunters.  
  
Thanks to reviewers, as usual, I look forward to those email alerts!  
  
The Tale of the Storm  
  
At midnight Tsunade left Gosain's room, she had been within for four hours. As she exited she saw Xi, Neji, and Shiren standing outside. "Well, it seems you're all concerned." She muttered. "You stone companion is fine, at least physically, though he needed a great deal of blood, and it didn't all come from cuts on his hands. What the hell is that weapon?" She held up a hand to stop Xi. "I know what it is." She admonished. "Don't patronize me."  
  
"How is Gosain?" Xi replied, his voice icy. "Can he talk?"  
  
Tsunade was taken aback. "That ninja just covered an incredible distance without sleep or rest, suffered serious battle wounds, depleted all his chakra, and is dealing with the side effects of a soldier pill, and you want to know if he can talk?" Tsunade stared at Xi. "Just how callous are you?"  
  
"This is not about callousness." Xi replied. "I must know what news Gosain brings. He was pursued by other lightning ninja in midnight blue, and the message he gave Shiren must be understood. So, is he able to speak coherently?"  
  
"It will make his recovery take longer if he exerts himself now." Tsunade replied. "I will not have you speak to him."  
  
"I am the most senior lightning ninja here, I will make the decision." Xi replied, and his words were steel. "Now either get out of the way or I will go through you, Hokage."  
  
"If you put it like that I will let you through Xi, but only to prevent more violence in this place, and not from kindness." Tsunade remarked. "I don't intend to ever make you welcome in this village again. However, if you go in, I will go with you."  
  
They opened the door and strode in.  
  
Gosain lay in a bed only a few feet away from Dar, but while the stone ninja was sitting up and staring at the wall with great focus, Gosain lay prone, and bandages and tubes covered much of his body. Still, his left hand grasped the pole that held his chains, though they dangled on the ground. "He refused to surrender them." Tsunade said quietly.  
  
Xi strode to Gosain's bedside, and stood there. "Chuunin Kabure Gosain." He said simply, not moderating his voice to be quiet.  
  
"Draci Xi." Gosain replied, his voice soft and rough, torn up and scratchy, and his lips were pale. "I was ordered to find you. I completed the mission."  
  
"Mission?" Xi replied. "Tell me Gosain."  
  
Gosain began to speak, his words slow and parched, but his voice carried a brutal sadness, and as he continued expressions of grief and regret broke out on the faces of all who listened, from Neji to Shiren to Tsunade to Dar, but Xi remained completely unmoved.  
  
"Raikage's last orders." Gosain began. "His last orders were to find you Xi, to tell you that the Dark Storm has returned. You must go to Lightning and kill her. You are the only one who can Xi. Everyone else is dead. They came in the night, amid a horrid storm, midnight blue ninja, came to kill everyone as they slept. The guards must have turned traitor or been enspelled by the storm, I don't know. They killed everyone loyal to Raikage they could find, all the jounin and chuunin, and they tried to kill me. I wasn't killed that easily. The genin, one of their teachers rang the alarm before he fell, and they all rallied and fought, but the clans, the clans knew, they stood aside, some even came and helped continue the attack. There were dead everywhere in the village, all the ANBU, the guardsmen, even the citizens who took up weapons. I found the genin, we organized, took back many streets, tried to fight our way to Raikage, we needed him Xi, we needed orders, something to fight for, someone to tell us why we were fighting."  
  
"We made it to him Xi, all the way to the Raikage's Hall. He fought a woman atop the broken roof, and he was losing. I would have fought with him Xi, we all would have, but he forbid it. He told us the woman was the Dark Storm, do you know her Xi? She looked so young, and beautiful, but horrible at the same time. He said I was the last Xi, the last chuunin loyal to him, that no one else had come." Gosain sobbed here, his strength breaking down, but he tightened the grip on his chains and continued. "He ordered all the genin to flee, to run and hide until the Dark Storm was dead. Then he ordered me to run, to find you and tell you to kill her, that you were the only one who could. So I ran, and Raikage sacrificed himself behind us all. I ran and ran and ran, all the way to the border."  
  
"Xi, please, kill her, you must. Everything is destroyed, Lightning has been shattered. They destroyed my home, my village, so many I knew, I saw dead, or I fought and killed in the streets. She is mad, to have done this. Kill her Xi, you must." Gosain fell silent.  
  
"The Raikage is dead?" Tsunade asked, as Xi stood silent.  
  
Gosain nodded.  
  
"The Dark Storm holds lightning, an s-ranked criminal and member of the Akatsuki is in command of one of the great shinobi countries?"  
  
Gosain nodded again.  
  
Tsunade's eyes went blank. "It can't be."  
  
"Gosain." Xi said finally. "I will kill her. I will finish it now."  
  
Xi turned and brushed by the stunned Tsunade, he walked out the door, and then swiftly down the hall, not stopping until he headed for the roof.  
  
"Shiren." Neji said quickly. "Get Dar up and follow me, quickly." He surged after Xi.  
  
Xi stood out on the roof of the hospital. Neji broke out behind him in time to see him reach down to his left leg, to the hunter-nin mask that hung there. Xi pulled the mask free of its thong.  
  
It has been eight years. Xi thought. Eight years since I wore this mask. He traced his finger down the broken edge, and his hand traced the scar on his forehead, the one which mirrored that mark. He remembered then the blast of lightning that had smote that mask, cutting it in two and shattering the other half. He recalled coming to his knees again after the blow had been struck, and looking out at what was before him.  
  
Xi remembered.  
  
"Xi, we can't win!" She had said from beside him as the Dark Storm plunged her black lightning sword into the second hunter-nin, killing Xi's comrade and driving the odds against her down. He saw the body of Veristai, a T'ien Lung, lying in the soil before him, the beautiful dragon's scales turned to black rot and smoldering. "She will kill us." She had said the words, the one woman who Xi had ever dared to love, the one who led them, leader of the hunter-nins of Hidden Cloud. Then she charged the Dark Storm.  
  
Xi moved to aid her, but he was too slow, and suddenly he saw them locked together, two beautiful women, yet only one could survive. The Dark Storm drove her lightning sword into her leg, but she did not grimace, only grabbed her enemy, and her hands slashed through the flak jacket of the Dark Storm, and then threw.  
  
Four objects landed in Xi's hands as he stood. "Xi!" She ordered. "Take the dragon artifacts and run! She must not have them!"  
  
"No!" Xi shouted back. "I won't let you die!"  
  
"Run Xi!" She told him again. "We have already lost, please run!" The last was a scream as the Dark Storm plunged her blade in again. She grabbed those hands, and black lightning drove into her, but she refused to let go. "I will hold her, run!"  
  
So Xi turned his back and ran, and he heard the Dark Storm laugh as he did so.  
  
It was there that I swore I would kill her for the first time. Xi looked at the mask. Eight years ago, and now it will be decided.  
  
"Xi!" Neji shouted, coming up behind him. "What is happening? What are you doing?"  
  
Xi turned around, and he saw Neji standing there, the young dragon ninja's face confused and troubled, but resolved. Behind him Shiren came up the stairs, and Dar behind her, the stone ninja with his customary stony look once more.  
  
"I am going to Lightning Neji," Xi replied. "I have someone to kill." Xi raised the mask to his face then, and placed it on.  
  
Though it was only half a mask it hung on Xi's face perfectly, the symbol of lightning slashed apart in the porcelain, and the jagged slash down the middle, with a flash of blue across the bottom.  
  
As he put on the mask Xi's face changed to match it, and Neji saw the transformation occur in him, and he feared it, but he stood firm. "Then we will go with you!" He told Xi.  
  
"No." Xi replied in a voice that was different from his own, the voice of the hunter, not concerned with anything but his prey. The voice of the hunter-nin. "This order is mine alone, you cannot follow."  
  
"We can aid you!" Shiren said from Neji's side, and Dar nodded.  
  
"No." Xi said again. "Against her you would only die."  
  
"I don't believe that." Neji replied, his own voice cold and level now. "You said I surpassed you."  
  
"In some things perhaps, but not in this." Xi told him. "Besides, why are you offering? There are no debts between us, you no longer need me, do not interfere with my mission."  
  
That stopped all three stone cold, for they recognized that Xi was not to be swayed by any appeal they could easily make.  
  
"Why must it be this way Xi?" Neji asked him.  
  
"I will tell you a story, Neji, since you are to carry on the dragon ninja." Xi said. "So that you understand."  
  
"Twelve years ago," Xi began. "The fifth Raikage was solid in his power, and the country of lightning was strong. The Daimyo wanted new territory, new possessions. There had been a recent treaty with Hidden Mist, and the islands were considered a meager prize in any case, so the Leaf was the target. The fifth Raikage believed he could win easily; he had many talented ninja beneath his banner including a new jounin, a beautiful woman who had already probed Konoha's weaknesses. She had supported his case for war, claiming that only a few itinerant bloodlines represented the strength of Konoha, and if their power could be discerned, they could be defeated."  
  
"So began the three year war. Many powerful ninja fought in it, including your father and his twin brother, your sensei Maito Gai, Hakate Kakashi, and many others. The Raikage had anticipated a quick victory, but he underestimated the resolve of the Third Hokage, and the power of two of Konoha's clans. One of those was the Hyuuga, the other, the Uchiha. Those two clans, with the strength of their eyes, were terribly fearsome on the battlefield, with their joint powers to copy and counter any effect to and to see through everything, it was almost impossible to combat. Still, we of lightning were not so easily defeated. A jounin among us, one who had never been notable, but always present, took command upon the battlefield, leading a group of ninja against the Uchiha and the Hyuuga, and he was able to counter their abilities. Still this bought only a stalemate, and a slowing to our reversals. The war ground on, and we were losing.  
  
The Leaf had almost driven the forces of Lightning back to the border, when that beautiful female jounin undertook some experiment. She was absent from the battlefield for a time, and when she returned she was much stronger, and immune to the powers of the Uchiha. She drove back a platoon of that most feared of clans by herself, killing one of the leaders, then considered the strongest of all the Uchiha, she also killed one of the Hyuuga, a woman who I believe was your aunt. When Konoha learned of this they offered peace, with the borders the same as before.  
  
Debate raged fierce in Hidden Cloud, as the Raikage considered the options. The jounin who led on the battlefield counseled for piece, but the jounin who had pioneered the techniques said they should continue fighting, that she would share her methods. It was then that we learned just what she had done; she had bound herself to a demon of the darkest fury of nature, a storm creature so viscous it had no name. From that point onward she was called the Dark Storm. Despite this frightful transformation she convinced the fifth Raikage, and he led a strike against Konoha itself. The Third Hokage killed him.  
  
Peace was made immediately, and a ninja party, consisting of our interim leader, was sent to Konoha. But that was a trick, as you well know, the Dark Storm had made many allies, and she had demanded the secrets of the Hyuuga bloodline as well, for the Hyuuga she had killed had not revealed any secrets. The plan failed, but they manipulated the peace to demand a Hyuuga in return. Instead, the Leaf tricked the Dark Storm by sending your father.  
  
You may not realize this Neji, but that act triggered many things in Lightning. The Dark Storm was furious when she learned that the secrets were sealed in him as well. She demanded the war be renewed, but the new Raikage, a woman who had been the compromise candidate for many factions, said no.  
  
A year passed then, as the Dark Storm built alliances and my comrades and I hunted the missing-nins the war had spawned in the land ruined by it. While Lightning seemed quiet for this time, except for the perpetual conflicts with Water country over the islands, inside it was seething. The Dark Storm was cunning, and she was extremely powerful. She convinced many clans to support her own bid for power, and she incited many clans against their old opponents, those who they had long hated, and she absolutely destroyed the influence of those who supported the Raikage.  
  
Then she struck.  
  
Lightning exploded in a single night, battle raging everywhere as the clans struck their enemies, those who supported the Dark Storm followed her orders, and many ninja simply lost themselves in the bloodlust. A few tried to end the war and restore order, but the Dark Storm hunted them down and destroyed them. She killed the sixth Raikage in the open streets, and those ANBU with her, and then made for the Raikage's Hall, seeking to take it and proclaim herself the new Raikage.  
  
If not for her recklessness and bloodlust she likely would have succeeded, but her ninja attacked the innocents in the town, and they laid siege to the academy, slowly massacring one class and working towards others.  
  
It was then that we heard.  
  
I was a hunter-nin Neji, one of four, my teammates. A chuunin found us in the wilderness, and before he died of brutal wounds he told us what happened, what the Dark Storm had begun.  
  
Neji, understand this much. Hunter-nins are forbidden to participate in conflicts, internal or external. I had not fought in the war, and we were bound by oaths not to fight then, we could not go back and face the Dark Storm." Xi paused for a moment, letting the other Dragon Ninja process what they were hearing. "But we went back anyway, we broke our oaths and went."  
  
"Shiren knows. She was there when we came into the Academy, robes flying behind us and weapons in hand. I killed a ninja who was attacking her, and then escorted her and her classmates to safety."  
  
Shiren nodded, remembering. He took off his mask for a moment, so that I would know he wasn't an enemy, and then he carried me to hide with my classmates, had they not helped us we would never have survived.  
  
"Yet it was more than that we did that day, for the Dark Storm was close to victory. While we saved students, she was atop the Raikage's Hall, where only one ninja stood to stop her. That ninja was my master, Draci Naravki. He fought the Dark Storm atop that hall, and fought for a long time, but in the end he died, and with his death she proved herself the most powerful ninja in all of Hidden Cloud. He had fought her there because the one who holds that Hall cannot be assaulted, can drive back any attack, it is the fortress at the heart of our village, and she stood ready to take it. We were headed there, as fast as we could, but we could not have gotten there in time to stop her.  
  
Instead another came, a man who she had not anticipated. The jounin battle leader, who had been leading the fights with Mist ninja in the south. He had stripped his garrisons bare and brought all those ninja north to reclaim the village. He and his men landed before her, and the Dark Storm was thwarted.  
  
But from Naravki's body she had taken the artifacts of the Dragon ninja, and the powers they contained could not be left in her hands. Though her chakra was depleted she fled, and that jounin could not task his men to follow. Instead, that task fell to us hunter-nins. We had broken our oaths, and we were judged for it. He banished us then and there, knowing it must be done, but he also charged that we still belonged to the village, and we were to kill the Dark Storm. The jounin was one you knew, the soldier who became the seventh Raikage, not because he wished the title, but because he had to, because no one else could.  
  
Four hunter-nins chased the Dark Storm, and I was one of them. We thought that we had her, no matter how powerful she was her chakra was depleted and she could not fight. We were wrong." Xi's voice and eyes never changed, though his personal tragedy unfolded. "She fell upon us, ambushing and slaying one of my teammates, and she consumed his energies somehow, recharging her own, so that her strength was as before. Still, we fought her, I summoned a T'ien Lung, only to watch him die upon her powers, and only to have her slam me back and break this mask you see on my face. She killed another of us then, and the woman who led us made a decision that we could not win. She grappled the Dark Storm, taking back the artifacts that she had stolen, and she gave them to me and ordered me to run, to abandon the battlefield. I did, and I heard her die as I fled.  
  
I returned to Hidden Cloud, and the Raikage, though he hated it, exiled me forever, and charged me with only two tasks, one was to ensure the continuation of the Dragon ninja, and the other was to kill the Dark Storm. For eight years, though I have roved about and spied on many and killed many more, those have been my only two missions, everything I have dedicated myself towards.  
  
Neji, you, and Shiren and Dar, you are the continuation of the Dragon ninja, that task is done. Now all that remains is to kill the Dark Storm, and I am going to do that now."  
  
He is going to his death. Neji saw, he could feel it; he knew Xi was ready to sacrifice himself to kill this woman, this Dark Storm. He knows he needs only a single blow, that it does not matter if he dies as he strikes, as long as she does. Xi, no. Neji did not want the man to die, did not want to see him go, not like this. "Are we to simply rot here then?" He demanded.  
  
"You will go to Waterfall." Xi ordered.  
  
"What?" It came from all three dragon ninja.  
  
"Have you forgotten?" Xi's voice remained deadpan. "There is an Akatsuki in Waterfall, one who has committed a terrible crime. He must be stopped. Tsunade will not be able to send help, she must send ninja to the lightning border now, the situation has become critical, and the Leaf has no ninja to spare. You must go; go to Waterfall, the Dragons asked it of you three, but not of me. They must have foreseen this. They watch from the heavens and may glimpse the future. You must do that, it will be the final test of you three, and I will not be with you." Xi turned. "Give my apologies to Tsunade, I hate to break my word even to that witch who dared forsake her duties, but I made the promise to kill the Dark Storm eight years ago, it has precedence. I suspect we will not meet again."  
  
With those words Xi departed into the night, and was beyond even Neji's sight in moments.  
  
"What do we do now?" Dar asked.  
  
"We tell Gosain goodbye and inform Hokage-sama that we are going to Waterfall." Neji said firmly. "You are fit to travel Dar, aren't you?"  
  
"Ah." The stone ninja replied.  
  
They walked down back into the hospital, where Tsunade still stood by Gosain's beside. "He has gone, hasn't he?" She said when they returned. "What a fool."  
  
"Draci Xi sends his regrets that he could not serve on the mission as he said." Neji replied. "A prior commitment has interfered."  
  
"You are a cold one, Draci Neji." Tsunade remarked.  
  
"Hokage-sama." Neji said slowly. "Scrap the mission to Waterfall immediately. The dragon ninja will finish it without burdening the Leaf."  
  
Tsunade's eyes narrowed. "You cannot plan to face an Akatsuki and all the Waterfall ninja by yourselves."  
  
"It is our fate." Neji replied. "And we are going to meet it, just as Xi meets his." Neji paused, and looked at Shiren and Dar, and saw the silent agreement in their eyes. "And when that it done, we are going after Xi."  
  
"I cannot help you." Tsunade said sadly. "Please, don't do anything foolish."  
  
"Neji." Gosain murmured from the corner, causing heads to turn.  
  
"Yes?" Neji asked, not wanting to be bothered, his mind already racing ahead. "Before you go to lightning, come and get me." Gosain wheezed. "You will need my help, it is my country."  
  
"Very well." Neji replied. "As long as you are fit."  
  
"I will be ready." Gosain managed.  
  
"Let's go." Neji said to Shiren and Dar. 


	43. The Burning Storm

Author's Notes: Okay, short chapter here, a really simple bit mostly, but it is kind of necessary by itself. The plot splits a little here, as evidenced in the last chapter. Obviously, we'll be dealing with Neji's bit first, since Xi's is the bigger and more climatic portion, and so all the pieces can move into place.  
  
This bit's short, so maybe I can get some reviews this time a round. Thanks in advance!  
  
The Burning Storm  
  
It took mere minutes for them to leave, they grabbed ANBU packs from Tsunade, the one contribution she could offer, and then they headed north. Neji set a brutal pace, recognizing that Xi would as well. In order to catch him in Lightning before it was all decided they would have to complete this task quickly. They had one advantage, the distance to Waterfall was not all that far, and Neji knew the way.  
  
"Neji," Shiren asked as they moved. "How are we going to do this?"  
  
"What do you mean?" He replied.  
  
"I want to help Xi too, but this isn't an ordinary mission." Shiren explained. "We have to get into Waterfall somehow, and kill this Akatsuki. He ambushed us before, and defeated everyone even with Xi's help. If the Waterfall protect him what do we do?"  
  
"We find a way around that." Neji said firmly. "Xi almost killed him, he told me what happened. This Kizen is not skilled in Taijutsu, while I am and so is Dar. If we can get close enough I am sure we can defeat him."  
  
"Waterfall is an invincible fortress." Dar admonished. "It has never been taken from without, your Hokage had a whole army prepared, what was their plan?"  
  
"They had planned to surround the village and prevent escape, while Xi, Aoba, and I infiltrated and dealt with the problem." Neji answered.  
  
"How were you going to infiltrate, there are no approaches that are unguarded?"  
  
"I know Dar," Neji replied. "We were there, we've traveled that road. Xi intended to summon a dragon I think, but we cannot do that and still have enough chakra to defeat the Akatsuki, and without an army to create a distraction it still might not work."  
  
"It's only cliffs and some guards," Shiren said. "There has to be a way."  
  
"We'll find a method, but for now speed is needed." Neji lowered his head against the wind and jumped to another tree.  
  
At dawn on the second day, the three dragon ninja could see Waterfall.  
  
"It looks even more impressive in the open daylight." Shiren remarked. Shear cliffs on three sides, and the rocky boulders, the four approaches to waterfall, the village that could not be conquered. Waterfalls raced down the sides of those cliffs now, the spring snowmelt in full swing as the sun beat down on the exposed mesa. "Such a formidable presence."  
  
Neji, looking at the village, wondered about a way. We cannot assault the village, but infiltration will be difficult, none of us has even seen this Mehize Kizen, and wandering around in that village for even a short time could mean death. He struggled to think of something he could do. "Let's head toward the base of the western cliffside, to get a better look." He decided.  
  
Dar and Shiren nodded.  
  
They traveled carefully through the rough hills, watching for other ninja and avoiding the eyes on the walls as best they could. If a Waterfall ninja had my eyes no one could ever approach this place unseen, the environment is far too hostile to it.  
  
At noon they stood at the base of the cliff walls. There was no way to know if they had been detected or not, short of an attack coming. The walls stretched cruel and high made smooth and impossible by the scouring power of water. Climbing them would be difficult, and long, too long, any Waterfall ninja could sweep them away. A genin could destroy a Kage who tried to climb this approach. Neji realized. "Any ideas?"  
  
"Simple plans are best." Dar remarked. "They avoid pitfalls, but I don't know any simple way to get up this."  
  
"No such way exists!" A sharp voice snapped in the chill air.  
  
Neji spun, immediately calling forth the Byakugan. "We are surrounded." He whispered, fifteen ninja at least, perhaps more beyond." They a flash of red caught Neji's attention, red hair. Mizain.  
  
Chakra rose to Neji's fingertips, and he considered launching an immediate attack, not daring to wait. Then he recalled the words that had been spoken to him by Sirachi, and stopped. Do I trust the dragon? He recalled those eyes, and one other thing. Battle here means that even if we survive we cannot get in quickly. Xi will be doomed. "Lower your weapons, Dar, Shiren." Neji ordered.  
  
"Huh?" Dar muttered.  
  
"Please Dar." Neji asked. He turned directly to where the red-haired ninja stood behind the trees, and addressed the man. "Mizain Yuki, what do you want?"  
  
The ninja jerked as if struck when his name was called, and he stepped out from behind the tree, revealing himself fully to Dar and Shiren.  
  
Mizain Yuki was a tall man, and strong in appearance, with spiky red hair bundled atop his head. His eyes flashed with burring power, but also restraint, something Neji had not yet seen in the Mizain family. Looking at him, wearing a jounin's uniform, Neji could see that he was very strong. This man is as powerful as Gai or Kakashi; he must be Waterfall's strongest.  
  
"I want many things, Draci Neji." Yuki replied, and his voice was sharp, like a lash. "You have killed my nephew and my younger brother, and now you stand before me and I want nothing more than to melt the flesh from your bones. Yet I have stayed my hand. Do you know why?"  
  
"You want something from us." Neji replied. "It must be Mehize Kizen."  
  
"Correct." Yuki told him. "I will give you your life today, Draci Neji, and in return you will kill Kizen for me. I understand Dragon ninja believe in keeping strict accounting of debt." When Neji nodded he continued. "Well, then there is another thing I will demand."  
  
"What is that?"  
  
"When the time comes for me to become the first Kage of Waterfall, and it will be soon, you will vouch for my character and restraint before the Hokage, and your companions before their Kages as well." Yuki gave a grim smile. "Kizen commands Waterfall now, his mistress the Dark Storm slew our head ninja, so now I am the strongest. Once Kizen is gone everyone will fall behind me."  
  
"Your politics do not concern me." Neji answered. "I will do this, but since you are not sparing our lives, but simply making our journey easier." And he gave Yuki a grim smile that implied his confidence to escape the trap. "You will need to arrange something."  
  
"What?" Yuki barked.  
  
"It will make you stronger in the end." Neji said simply. "If we do not have to fight through many Waterfall ninja. Arrange for Kizen's bodyguards to abandon him when the sunset begins today. Tell me where he is and that is when we will strike."  
  
"Kizen is the challenge square, playing with the lives of the dead." Yuki answered. "I can arrange for his personal guards to be gone, indeed it only makes sense, that way I insure his defeat even if you fail. I'll kill him myself. If you get caught entering our village though, I will enjoy watching you die." He chuckled.  
  
"Your bloodline is a heinous thing that should be wiped from the world." Neji replied, totally serious. "But I will pay my debts."  
  
"How kind of you." Kizen remarked. "You will have your sunset arrangement."  
  
The Waterfall ninja faded into the forest and spray.  
  
"Sunset, Neji?" Dar asked cautiously. "How will we get in?"  
  
"We have a few hours to figure that out." Neji replied.  
  
Shiren looked up at the walls steadily, and she fingered a kunai in her left hand. "I wonder..." She muttered.  
  
"What is it Shiren?" Neji asked.  
  
"Well, we know where Kizen is going to be right? I mean, I recall the location in Waterfall; it is in the southeastern center. So all we have to do is get there." She considered.  
  
"Up several hundred feet of cliff and without being seen by numerous guards, sure." Dar jibed. "Hardly a simple task."  
  
"Why not?" Shiren asked him. "I thought simple plans were the best. Why couldn't we just run there?"  
  
"Run there?" Dar snapped, and then his eyes went wide.  
  
"Shiren, you are brilliant." Neji smiled at her. "It could be done. Normal ninja couldn't but with proper control it could be done. We could even throw a wire at the top and then run across it to the square. The chakra cost would be high, but it would grant us surprise, and we might be able to get close to the Akatsuki." Neji looked up at the cliffside. "It seems that may be the best plan."  
  
"It's insane." Dar said carefully. "But only the insane would attack Hidden Waterfall. We should find the closest point, so to minimize chakra use, and avoid any waterfalls on the way up."  
  
"Indeed." Neji thought about it. "We will leave our packs at the bottom, we will not bother with coming back down. Once Kizen is dead we will summon dragons and fly out of here. Mizain Yuki will probably try to kill us as we leave, he's not a fool. At sunset we will finish this." 


	44. Winds of the Grave

Author's Notes: Aaargh! I did it again! I forgot to post a chapter. Sorry everyone. Well, then I'll cut to the chase and get on with some serious ninja violence in the heart of Hidden Waterfall. How's that for a solution?  
  
My thanks to all reviewers!  
  
Winds of the Grave  
  
The sun sets behind three dragon ninja as they stand below the cliffs that guard the western approach to Hidden Waterfall. High above them stand tall walls and walk wary guards, ready to pounce on anything that dares to climb those invincible walls. Behind those walls, surrounded by those who have long since finished their service, and those who are his tools, waits Mehize Kizen, one of the nine Akatsuki.  
  
A group that will soon become eight. Draci Neji decides as he looks up at those walls. No one could climb them, but this is not to be climbing. He smiles as he looks at Shiren, as she tugs the last loop of wire into place. Everything is ready.  
  
"It is time." Neji says, and steps forward.  
  
Shiren and Dar step forward with him.  
  
"I still can't believe we're doing this." Dar remarks. "But it will be something to remember if it works."  
  
So they ran.  
  
It was two hundred steps to the cliff face, just enough distance to get up speed.  
  
Three ninja streaked out from behind the shrubs below the cliffs, and high above the waterfall guards saw them, a ninja in blue, one in brown, and one in white, they charged the cliffs as fast as their legs would take them. The guards were puzzled, but they readied their weapons.  
  
Neji saw the cliff face approach, watched as the ground changed direction. He felt the chakra within him, and he channeled it, so that without any loss of speed he changed direction, orienting himself upward, pouring chakra out of his feet, adapting to the wet and slick stone, and continuing to run.  
  
Shiren and Dar followed, less smoothly, but they ran, up a wall of stone and water that only a dragon ninja could dare ascend, only that precision and that brazenness.  
  
Shouts broke out above, and spears came raining down, but they went far behind the dragon ninja, thrown by men who expected the slow pace of climbers, who could not believe what their eyes were showing them, and could not predict the path.  
  
Up and up, they zigzagged, constantly mindful of the chakra flow in their feet, forcing themselves to not lose the grip, to keep going.  
  
It took only moments, that swift climb, hundreds of feet upwards, and then they were there. A horrified Waterfall guard threw a kunai past Neji's head, and then was slammed back as Neji connected with him, throwing him to the ground, far below the wall.  
  
Neji and Dar turned, and blocked a few weapons that came from the side, but the other guards were too far, they had not had time to converge to this point on the wall, and so they were out of position.  
  
"Now Shiren!" Neji called.  
  
Shiren crested the wall and wire spun out from about her waist, strand after strand, becoming incredibly long, and then she threw the kunai.  
  
The weapon flew across the village of waterfall, propelled by Shiren's chakra and her uncanny aim to stick into one of the buildings that marked the edge of the Square of Challenge.  
  
"Let's Go!" Dar shouted, as he struck aside a kunai with his sword.  
  
Neji went first, dashing out onto that wire, running full tilt as before. Shiren followed, having taken only a single step atop the wall, and last came Dar.  
  
More shocked calls followed as they dashed across a wire above the streets of Hidden Waterfall, and many weapons followed, but the reactions were all too slow, behind the dragon ninja, no one was ready to counter that approach.  
  
Neji hit the end and leapt onto the rooftop, taking placing a single foot down, before vaulting into the square, the Byakugan revealing everything before him. Shiren followed, taking a kunai in each hand, ready to strike. Last came Dar, and he slashed through the wire as he left it, sending it spinning to the ground, and cutting off pursuit.  
  
They landed less than a second apart in the square of challenge, and there lay the working of Mehize Kizen.  
  
The whole square was covered in it, a grand pattern drawn in old blood, marking out a complex symbol that none of the dragon ninja recognized, though they could see the symbols of all the shinobi countries within it. At each point of that grand symbol lay an ancient skeleton, clad in the unmarked gear that these ninja had worn, no markings of countries upon them, only the loyalty to their families to carry them forward. They were quiet in repose, but something about that tableau horrified the mind. This is despicable, what defilement is this? These men and women have had their peace, have earned it, why do you disturb them? What villainy is so great as to unearth these ninja and place them here, to be used for some wretched purpose? Neji could not fathom it. Never before had something seemed so terrible to him, and he immediately lost all sense of mercy toward this Akatsuki he had never met. You will pay for this Mehize Kizen, and may the dragons take you to your deserving place after we are done.  
  
Mehize Kizen stood in the center of the grand display, wearing the red-clouded robes of the Akatsuki, chanting grimly, and drawing seals in blood upon the earth.  
  
Neji took a step forward, and he looked up.  
  
"You?" Kizen looked at Neji, and then his gaze drifted to Shiren, and then Dar. "And you, and you? You three are alive?" He seemed disgusted. "I entrusted only a simple thing to the grass ninja, and they failed even in that." His face screwed up and he appeared incensed. "You have disrupted the equilibrium of my working, ruining everything done this day. I don't know how you got in here, but I am certain you will not leave." Kizen stood slowly. "Guards." He ordered. "Kill these interlopers."  
  
The order hung unanswered in the air. Kizen revealed a single moment of surprise, and then he grinned viscously. "So, the Mizuho master has betrayed me, he thinks to have the whole pie for himself does he? What a fool, I am in my stronghold, and I am not so foolish as to be unprepared for attack."  
  
"Shut up." Neji demanded. "You've said enough for your last words." He advanced.  
  
Kizen almost laughed, but he brought his hands together into a seal. "Subsume the Dead Soul Infusion."  
  
Three bodies lay behind Kizen, and these were not the aged skeletons of the great ninja wars, these were three more recent dead, wearing the garb of stone. The slid to their feet then, in a crumpling movement that a living man could not have made, and as they emerged they transformed into duplicates of Mehize Kizen.  
  
"Clones will not save you, Akatsuki." Neji remarked.  
  
"Clones?" Kizen laughed. "You think these are clones? They are far more. I have placed a little bit of my essence into them. They have all my energy and powers, taken by controlling their own souls and forging them again. Their new life will be very short, but enough to finish you. After all, three on three should be fair odds, yes?"  
  
The three dead Kizen's advanced.  
  
Damn! Neji considered the situation, speaking aloud. "He said they are alive, so they can die like the living. Work together, and we can defeat them." Neji stepped forward.  
  
The clones began to form seals. Neji rushed the center clone, drawing his nekode, Shiren the left hand one, and Dar the right hand.  
  
"Sandstorm flesh cutter!" The three clones each performed the same jutsu. Shear blasts of sand, with the strength to rip flesh off bones, projected from their hands, and cut through the air.  
  
"Rose Facet Spin!" Dar shouted, swirling about, cutting away everything in front of him.  
  
"Kaiten!"  
  
"Dragon wind!"  
  
Each attack was blocked suddenly, and the clones moved to strike once more. "Shiren!" Neji called, and motioned her towards him.  
  
Shiren ran across, as the clone in front of her sent shuriken flying in her direction.  
  
She jumped directly at Neji.  
  
"Kaiten!" Neji spun again, blocking the pursuing shuriken, and Shiren hit the arc of his spin just so, so that she was launched behind him, flashing past Dar.  
  
"Lightning element: Multiple Spark Star no Jutsu!" Weapons flew from Shiren's hands as she came flying by, faster than she could have moved on her own.  
  
"Sandstorm shield!" The missiles impacted against a swirling blast of sand, falling to the ground.  
  
Dar's sword came in through that storm, there was only enough distance to extend the blade through that whirling sand blast to touch his enemy, but that was enough. Chakra burst down the blade. "Dragon fang!"  
  
A hole two inches around punched through the chest of the clone, and it fell back, sand shield gone.  
  
Dar took off its head. The body reverted to a stone ninja's when it struck the ground.  
  
The central clone, sensing Dar's vulnerability as he completed the move, charged in.  
  
"Clawing whirlwind!" Neji spun in front of him and was there, and the sword that came down was slashed apart into tiny pieces, and then the rending claws came out and shredded the body.  
  
The left hand clone formed its hand seals. A blade of incorporeal wind, sharp as the sharpest razor blade, slashed through the air, seeking Neji's head.  
  
Dar's thrown sword cleaved through that blade of wind, cutting it into nothing. His weapon able to cut anything.  
  
Shiren dashed across the square, a kunai in each hand. "Thunder and Lightning strike!"  
  
She moved fast enough to vanish, one side, then the other, then she leapt above.  
  
The clone projected that spinning and cutting shield of sand, but a clap of thunder split the air, and the shield vanished, even as Shiren's body pivoted, and she came around to pierce the heart of her foe.  
  
This clone fell into the square and reverted as well. She reached down and threw Dar his sword. The stone ninja caught it by the hilt easily.  
  
"Sand trap no jutsu!"  
  
Sand flooded up from the ground beneath the three dragon ninja. It grabbed their legs and hardened suddenly, taking on the consistency of stone, immobilizing them.  
  
Mehize Kizen emerged from the place of one of the skeletons, and clapped slowly and steadily. "Most impressive I admit, your teamwork appears very capable, but then I was never very good at fighting in the open any way." He gave them a grim smile. "I much prefer to act with more cunning."  
  
"Cunning? You think this will hold me?" Dar moved to slash through the stony sand about his feet.  
  
"Ha!" Kizen laughed. "Of course not, but it has served its purpose by distracting your for a few final moments so that my Chakra Leech can complete its work."  
"Chakra Leech?" Shiren wondered. "No..."  
  
"Can you feel any chakra little lightning girl, in your arms or legs?" Kizen looked at Shiren, amused. "It is all gone, it has been slowly draining out of you all throughout that impressive little display, I have taken it to power my working, it makes my task so much easier."  
  
No chakra? Neji thought rapidly, and he looked down at himself. No, he is wrong, the Byakugan is still on my eyes, and I can see, I have chakra, but there is none in the tenkentsu below the neck, he is draining us from the bottom down. Neji thought fast. I can rechannel it, I can see where he is leeching it, but I only have enough for one move. Can I kill him that quickly?  
  
"It seems I win now." Kizen remarked. "Hmm...which of you should I kill first? I want to maximize your agony you see. Perhaps the lightning girl? Or maybe I should kill the leader first, eh, Draci Neji?" Kizen moved to the edge of that sandy binding.  
  
"You are mistaken, Mehize Kizen." Neji answered in his coldest voice, one he had learned from Xi. "You are the one who dies now." I know how to do this, it will work, and it must work. Neji recalled the image he needed, the one that had stared up in his nightmares for so long, the red eyes of the T'ien Lung, Wusashu, the dragon's eyes. He felt the chakra in his head, and he channeled it, past places where it was not meant to go, summoning up that alien image into his eyes, letting the dragon take his face as he unleashed the killing jutsu. He formed the seals with his hands, ending on Ryu, the dragon. The red energy flooded his eyes, but there was more, Xi had told Neji what to expect, the ability to see currents of fear and emotion, to have vision leap great distances and brush aside all obstacles, but Xi had not reckoned on the Byakugan.  
  
Neji's eyes shifted, the crystallized pupils of the Byakugan dipping down, elongating even as those white eyes turned red upon red. The pupils connected with the bottom of Neji's eyes, forming the red inner fang that characterized the dragon's eye, and Neji realized he could see.  
  
Not just fear or chakra, I can see into Mizain and direct this fear, this alien force, I see the points of vulnerability in him. It struck Neji suddenly just what had happened, the power he had unleashed. I can see into his soul!  
  
This is beyond the Byakugan, beyond the Dragon's Eye, what is this? A name came to Neji then, one that it seemed was whispered into the back of his mind by a cutting inhuman voice, one similar to Wusashu's, but different, more mature, ancient voice of unearthly power.  
  
"All Seeing Eyes of the Heavens." Neji intoned, and his eyes opened and looked into those of Mehize Kizen.  
  
The Akatsuki's head slammed backwards, his neck cracking with the force. He did not scream, but his mouth distended as if he wished to. His legs tried to move backward, but they found no purchase on the ground, as if he was held in the air by fear and agony. His eyes screamed their own pain, as Neji saw the images inflict themselves upon Kizen, and the former sand ninja's soul crumbled as the aged warriors of the past stood up in their skeletal majesty and struck him, slamming blade after blade into him, cutting until their weary souls were satisfied.  
  
Around Neji the sand at his feet crumpled, and he reached down to his kunai holster, never taking his eyes from Kizen's, and drew forth a single kunai. It is not necessary, he will die soon, but this torment is enough for even him. Neji took the kunai in his right hand and threw.  
  
It buried itself in the Akatsuki's heart.  
  
Mehize Kizen pitched forward and slammed into the stone. The moment he hit his body began to break down, crumpling slowly to dust, along with his robes and gear, until only the forehead protector, with the slashed symbol of Hidden Sand on it, remained.  
  
When Kizen was gone Neji felt his chakra return, even as his eyes returned to normal with a frightful suddenness, leaving him feeling drained and awed. I must be very careful with this power, or I will be punished for it. He recognized. I will be careful.  
  
"Neji, my chakra is back, what was left after the fight anyway." Shiren remarked. "Dar?"  
  
The stone ninja nodded.  
  
"Then quickly, before the Mizain comes." Neji remarked. He formed the seals with his hands, calling as much chakra as remained to him. He bit his left forefinger and placed his hands on the ground. "Dragon summoning no Jutsu!" Three ninja spoke at once.  
  
A great wind blew up upon that square, enough to blow the dragon ninja to the ground. When it was done all the ancient skeletons were gone, and three dragons floated in the air, large and powerful. The Chiang Lung, Elisylni, the Pan Lung Giraltiej, and the T'ien Lung Wusashu. "You have summoned us here, as we wished." Wusashu spoke. "Now, what is your request, dragon ninja?"  
  
Neji did not hesitate. "Carry us to Konoha, and from there to the border of the Country of Lightning."  
  
"As we are summoned we are bound to serve, but the debt will be light, since a great service has been done." Wusahu intoned. "Come, we shall fly." 


	45. Storm of Vengeance

Author's Notes: So, another short chapter here, as we switch back to Xi's portion of the story. Things are getting awfully close to the finale at this point.  
  
Storm of Vengeance  
  
On the border of the Country of Lightning stands Draci Xi. He wears a broken hunter-nin mask over half his face, the legacy of eight years left behind. Before him stands the homeland he has been forever banished from, the one he put behind him. Yet now that command has been rescinded and all punishments have been called back. The last command of the one Lightning ninja Xi would have allowed to give him orders, the seventh Raikage, commands it. He steps forward, with but a single objective. Kill the Dark Storm, no matter the cost.  
  
They will try to stop me. Xi knows. He knows the Dark Storm's mind, the situation that he has learned from Gosain's testimony. She cannot dare to fight him in Hidden Cloud itself; she does not have a strong enough hold on the nation yet. The genin escaped her, and killed many of her minions, defeating her plan. Many of the Jounin of Lightning live, loyal to the clans they serve, a force of power strong enough that, were it to rise against her, would be too great a threat.  
  
Further, she cannot permit Xi to join with a resistance. There are still many, many genin in the wilds of Lightning country, and the garrisons on the southern islands and wandering ANBU remain a threat. If they gathered together they could destroy her. The Dark Storm can destroy anyone who opposes her, but she cannot rule lightning alone, Xi must not join with any other force, to create a group strong enough to match her.  
  
All the strength she can spare will come against me. Xi acknowledges. The ninja in midnight blue, several dozen are likely. They will not be strong, weak chuunin mostly, those who are enthralled by her power. Her few jounin servants must remain in Cloud itself, to run the city, but this will be all of the others. Xi steps forward across the border.  
  
Let them come.  
  
From the back of his flak jacket, beneath the collar of his neck, Xi draws out a small bundle, wrapped in blue cloth. Slowly, he unwraps the cloth, revealing what it hides. One of the four artifacts of the dragon ninja. Xi recalls, looking on these that he has carried for eight years. The cloth holds a pair of nekode, brilliant blue steel that shines without a single marring mark, and tines as sharp as the chakra blades of Rend. The Dragon's Claws.  
  
Carefully Xi takes out those nekode. He does not attach them to the holsters on his legs, but simply places his hands into them. The Dragon's Claws fit his hands perfectly, and then he feels a burning itch, and watches as the metal slowly sinks into his skin, so that he is no longer holding the weapons at all, but that they have become one with his hands.  
  
Holding the weapons up to catch a bit of moonlight, Xi sees their sharpness, and he knows the capabilities of these. Like Dar's crystalline blade, they will cut through any weapon that comes against them. Now, to deal with the fools who think to stop me.  
  
They are waiting ahead, Xi can practically feel it. The Dark Storm has already learned that Gosain reached Konoha; she knows he is coming, and has reacted. Xi's senses are keen, he moves forward slowly, silent, searching for the signs of another ninja.  
  
One by one, I will pick them off. Xi determines.  
  
A branch snaps in the distance, and Xi hears the sound. His hands move through seals as he leaps toward this target. "Dragon's Eye!" He whispers, calling the brutal red vision toward his eyes. A single strike, and fear will reveal them all to me!  
  
There is a ninja in midnight blue standing on the branches, looking out toward the border; he never sees the dragon ninja come at him from above.  
  
Nekode slash down, ripping through flesh and bone, swift strokes, once and again, and the light leaves the ninja's eyes and the body falls to the ground. Xi does not catch it, but lets it fall, waiting for the reaction.  
  
A soft thump, body hitting the floor.  
  
Birds leave their roosts at the disturbance, and forty ninja surge into motion.  
  
A tendril of fear creeps forward in the darkness, and Xi is suddenly there. He slashes through the kunai with one arm and rips four bloody lines through the throat with the other.  
  
This ninja gurgles and screams as he falls, and kunai and shuriken scream through the night, to converge on the site, but they strike only the dying man, for it is Xi who is falling through the dark to the ground, only to come up between three ninja.  
  
He spins in perfect motions, nekode moving up and down as his momentum carries them through flesh, and then ripping up.  
  
The trio is left bleeding and dying as Xi jumps high once more and moves on.  
  
"Where is he?" The cry splits the night, as one ninja tries to rally his forces.  
  
"Rend!" The ninja's body falls to the ground as Xi reveals his position for the first time.  
  
Seven different blasts of lightning submerge the tree in a cascade of power.  
  
Shuriken strike each of seven ninja, and all the weapons are lethally poisoned. Xi vanishes again, though they hunt for him.  
  
A female ninja dies as the weapons of her comrade, seeking Xi, strike her in the back of the head.  
  
That ninja has time to cry out in horror, an instant before the dragon ninja slices him open.  
  
So it proceeds, time after time ninja converge, only to find they have the wrong target, that Xi has ambushed them, or that they are simply to few to counter that raw and all-destructive force that stands before them.  
  
Ninja cry out as a face wearing half a mask emerges before them in the darkness, slices apart their weapons with hands that have become lethal claws, and then strikes them down.  
  
He is gone an instant later, lost in the darkness, this ruthless hunter that emerges only to kill.  
  
One ninja has had enough, he hears the screams of his comrades dying around him and decides to run, to flee this madness that is claiming them all, a terrifying destruction they are not equipped to counter. He fears the Dark Storm's reprisals, but for now he fears the terror of the dragon ninja far more. She isn't human, but neither is he!  
  
So, it has come to the last. Xi watches from a treetop as this one runs. He is a distance ahead, but it will not be enough.  
  
The clawed hands flash through seals, and Xi leaps skyward. "Skywalk no Jutsu!"  
  
The midnight blue ninja dares for a moment to believe he has escaped, and then he looks up.  
  
In front of the moon is a figure, one leg extended, descending faster than a falcon's dive.  
  
Xi's foot connects with the head of the ninja with the terminal force of his fall, smashing it as they meet the ground. The lethal falling attack of Skywalk no Jutsu.  
  
The dragon ninja steps over the body and walks forward. Thirty-nine ninja lie dead at his hands, he is completely uninjured, though every part of his body save his white hunter-nin mask is stained with blood. Xi wipes the Dragon's Claws clean on the body of the ninja he has just struck down, but does not remove them.  
  
There were forty of them, he knows. One has been allowed to escape. Go and tell the Dark Storm I am coming. Let us end this forever.  
  
There had been no mistakes made, Xi's attack was flawless, he had confidence now in his abilities, honed all those cold days in stone, he recognized his strength, the powers that he had only barely unlocked against Neji, the viscous killing strength that had remained long dormant, focused on this one clash.  
  
Recalling Neji Xi almost wishes the young ninja was there, he even finds himself missing Shiren and Dar, but he pushes that away. I have to do this myself. Even with all these dead the Dark Storm remains. I have drawn her out at the cost of these traitor's blood, but I cannot know if it will be enough. There are three days travels to Hidden Cloud, it must be finished soon. Neji, I hope you succeed against Kizen, for I will not be able to help you. This is where this ends. Still, Xi was satisfied within. I am glad I could pass on the way of the dragon ninja before my time was up. Xi the teacher and Xi the wanderer are gone, that eight years has evaporated in the dragon ninja, and only the hunter-nin, the one he has always truly been, remains.  
  
Thus Xi turns his back on the last few months, and further upon the last eight years, deciding that is was all preparation for this one thing that was meant to be done long ago. The fallen's faces stir in his mind and drive him forward, and the Dark Storm knows he is coming.  
  
High upon the Raikage's Hall in the heart of Hidden Cloud she hears the words of the one who escaped Xi, and she laughs. "I should have known no puny fools could stop the man who has not slept in the same place twice for eight years just to trouble me. Just like eight years ago I will be forced to deal with these worthless relics called dragon ninja myself." She laughs again, and Xi dreams he can hear that laughter far away. "Will he be as much amusement as his master was?" 


	46. Cleansing the Storm

Author's Notes: Well, not much to say here, another short chapter, just bringing everything together. There are only two more chapters after this, so I'll post the next one tomorrow and the whole thing will be finished Saturday night. Hope that whet's some readers' appetites.  
  
Cleansing the Storm  
  
"Gosain!" Neji calls over the wind to the ninja behind him on Wusashu's back. "How close are we?"  
  
"About to cross the border." Gosain replies grimly. The lightning ninja grimaces in remembrance, but his wounds are healed, and he has only resolve on his return to the troubled land. "There is a clearing nearby we can land in."  
  
"Then that is as far as we go." Wusashu remarks as he runs through the sky. "Already we have lingered too long in this world. We can take you no farther."  
  
The clearing appears below them, and three dragons land there, the great creatures are tired, and suck in great lungfuls of breath.  
  
"My thanks honored Wusashu." Neji says as he dismounts. "You have given us the chance we need to catch Xi."  
  
The T'ien Lung looked at Neji carefully. "You are a strong youth, Draci Neji. But do not think the addition of your strength will overcome the Dark Storm. She is not that kind of enemy." Wusashu bored into Neji's eyes. "Your chance comes in making Draci Xi, chief among those who know us, remember you."  
  
With those enigmatic words Wusashu and his fellow dragons vanished from the clearing, leaving only the four ninja there.  
  
Neji turned to them. "What do you think?"  
  
"We have to catch Xi quickly." Shiren replied. "Something is very strange here."  
"Whatever guards were posted, Xi has certainly shredded them." Dar said. "But I don't think we will be unopposed."  
  
Looking at the ground around them, Gosain turned and faced Neji. "Xi will have faced the Dark Storm's loyalists. She will have to find someone else to send against us, perhaps a clan that serves her."  
  
Neji nodded. "When that happens we will deal with it. There is no time for anything else." He gave Shiren and Gosain a nod. "This is your country, lead the way."  
The Country of Lightning is verdant and forested, similar in many ways to the Leaf country, but the forests here are more tepid, humid, and their trees grow taller, with mighty trunks that reach to the sky. Fogs are present everywhere, a sign of the constant storms that lash this region, and in many places there is evidence of fires set by lightning. It is a land of borders and edges, unique in its own distinct way. The Country of Lightning, a cooler version of the country of Water perhaps, but fraught with storms and fire, and not an island, but a land.  
  
It is a strong place, but unstable, and Neji recognizes that this is a place that changes rapidly, and he understands why there are so many who bicker and fight amongst themselves in this country, because it has so much difference within. Who could unite this place? He wondered. The first Raikage must have, but that is has stayed so long is strange.  
  
Neji does not grasp the driving forces of weather here, the separate lands with their many varied concerns that drive men apart, and the terrible storms that bring them together again, the paradox of Lightning Country. Regardless, true unity is a rarity in the lands of the ninja, and Lightning has never had one to match the third Hokage. Neji wonders who could take that up for this place, but he cannot find any answers.  
  
They move swiftly through the trees, heading closer to the Hidden village of Cloud, seeking the center of this nation. There are no signs that anyone has passed ahead of them, but Neji knows his route and Xi's would be different. They were coming from the north, having crossed over the devastated Sound Country by air, while Xi would have traveled further south. Hopefully we can avoid opposition that way, but we must find Xi.  
  
Gosain had told them that it would come to battle outside of Hidden Cloud, he understood that much of the politics, but he had no idea where the fight would take place. So, that leaves only hurrying and hoping. Neji decided. At times he wondered why he was doing this, why he was chasing after Xi like this. We have no mission to do so, and Xi is not my friend, though he is important. This fight is not mine, so I wonder.  
  
Part of the answer was simple; Neji knew he was doing this for Shiren, because she would not wish to see Xi die, because his heart had darkened when he left. But there was more to it. Neji recalled the face Xi had made when he put on the mask, grew angry. Are we so unimportant that he throws us away for the sake of a mask and eight years ago? I want to see him take off that mask and accept us to fight beside him, as fellow dragon ninja. Neji could see that by leaving, in many ways he had proclaimed himself the only one worthy.  
  
Shiren stopped suddenly. "The wind changed." She whispered. "They are before us.  
  
"Correct, little weakling!" A lightning ninja emerged from under the cover of tree branches, wearing the regular uniform of lightning, not the midnight blue of the Dark Storm. He carried a long spear in his right hand.  
  
"Clan Nemari." Gosain hissed. "So they're the ones who decided to play lapdog."  
  
Ninja after ninja emerged from the cover of branches and hiding places then, many carried spears, but also other weapons, and their appearances varied. Neji kept a running count, and when the last ninja emerged he spoke. "Sixty, there are sixty of them." The odds were bad, but Neji opened his eyes to the Byakugan. Weak, all of them, these are not powerful ninja; the strongest of them is the equal of Yilosi Nemari who Gosain fought in Stone. "We could beat them." He told his companions. "We will have to scatter and take them in small groups."  
  
"That will take time." Dar muttered. "Problematic." He put his hand to his sword hilt.  
  
"Really?" The Nemari clan ninja raised an eyebrow. "You're awfully confident."  
  
"If you're here then Xi beat through all the Dark Storm's real servants." Gosain retorted. "You idiots are just enough of fools to have been sent out of the line of trouble." Gosain looked over at Neji, pointing at him, Shiren, and Dar in turn. "If one dragon ninja could kill all her servants how will you traitors beat three?"  
  
"Don't mock me you cursed bastard!" The ninja hurled his spear straight at Gosain, and lightning enveloped it as it traveled.  
  
When the spear was a foot of Gosain Neji reached out his right hand and snatched it out of the air, he projected runnels of his own chakra and cut the lightning form apart smoothly, and then dropped the immobile spear to the ground. "I will give you one chance." Neji said calmly to the shocked lightning ninja. "All of you, leave now, or we will pass through you with full force."  
  
"Don't mock us!" The lightning ninja shouted back. "Kill them!"  
  
Damn! Neji thought. We don't have time for this, there are too many to bypass, we will lose any chance of catching Xi!  
  
Shiren and Dar grimaced, knowing this as well, but they drew weapons and made ready to break to whichever side Neji chose.  
  
"We have no time for you traitors!" Gosain howled, pulling his chains out from beneath his flak jacket. Those bands of steel links spun through the air before him.  
  
"What are you going to do with those?" Another ninja mocked from the side.  
  
Gosain's eyes narrowed and he looked out at the sixty ninja, seeing every one, marking their positions. "You are the ones who tried to kill the genin when the Dark Storm came, you betrayed Raikage and all the lightning ninja. I'm going to cleanse the traitors!" Gosain whirled his chains, making seals with both hands around the pole.  
  
The chains broke apart, individual links flying forward in a storm before him. "The Raikage showed us when you must sacrifice!"  
  
Links flew by every one of the ninja, and the two kunai that hung from the end of Gosain's chains land in front of the Nemari clan ninja.  
  
He looked at them quizzically, and shrugged. He took a step forward.  
  
Shiren's eyes went wide, and she saw Gosain turn his pole upright, holding it between his eyes with his right hand, like a katana. "Gosain n-" She began.  
  
Gosain's left hand formed a seal, his first two fingers raised, the outer two closed, and his thumb wrapping forward. He brought the hand to the chains. "Soul Chain Binding!"  
  
The sixty ninja, who had begun to move to attack, suddenly screamed as the chain links that littered the trees exploded in mass of dull gray chain, chains formed of spirit and energy, but that could bind a demon. Gosain doubled over in wracking pain, and blood flowed freely from his mouth, but sixty ninja lay stopped dead, held fast by chains of spirit.  
  
"Dragon ninja..." Gosain muttered, his voice forced and pained. "If...you...could."  
  
Neji nodded, and gathered his chakra, forming seals and bringing his hands to his mouth.  
  
"Dragon breath!"  
  
"Spark missile storm!"  
  
"Rain of Crystal Shards!"  
  
Fire burned, lightning shuriken shocked, and flashing arrowheads of crystal ravaged among the immobile ninja. The attacks were dispersed, widespread and untargeted, a great expenditure of chakra that even an academy student could have dodged, but sixty ninja stood trapped, unable to dodge, and they was no stopping the lethality of those attacks.  
  
In moments where there had been sixty living lightning ninja there were sixty dead lightning ninja, the last to fall was the Nemari clan ninja, whose chains had been made not of links of steel, but connected kunai.  
  
Gosain collapsed to the ground, and his pole slipped from his hand.  
  
The three dragon ninja were at his side in an instant. "Gosain, why did you use that technique?" Shiren asked, her voice sad and troubled. "It is forbidden, who taught it to you?"  
  
"Every soldier has a single last resort." Gosain answered.  
  
"We could have defeated them without such means." Dar said. "That was unnecessary."  
  
Gosain turned his head painfully, and looked over at Neji. Neji nodded. "My thanks, Gosain. You have saved our mission here."  
  
"I knew I had to come." Gosain managed in a scratchy voice. "You can save Xi, but the traitors were my problem." He coughed up a gob of blood. "That technique, it costs you some of your life energy, and shortens your lifespan. Still, it was necessary."  
  
"Will you be alright?" Neji asked simply.  
  
"Ah." Gosain replied. "There are no more enemies here. I'll be okay in a few hours; I'll go find the resistance. Go on, quickly, you must catch Xi before he reaches Cloud Village, all three of you."  
  
"We should leave someone to stay with you." Shiren said from the side. "But we cannot."  
  
"Go on." Gosain muttered. "I can't do anything without my chains anyway."  
  
"Meet with us in Hidden Cloud." Neji told him. He turned to Shiren and Dar. "Let's go."  
  
The three dragon ninja left Kabure Gosain among the fallen and continued after Draci Xi. 


	47. Heart of the Dark Storm

Notice: I do not own Naruto, and make no claims of copyright on the characters who are not my property. Original characters, however, are mine.  
  
Author's Notes: Well, one chapter from the end and I finally pass 100 reviews, not bad. Anyway, this is the first half of the climax. The other half will be posted tomorrow night, and the story will be over.  
  
Thanks to those who reviewed!  
  
Heart of the Dark Storm  
  
Twenty-five kilometers out from Hidden Cloud village the clouds are gathering. They are black and stormy, and heavy with rain. It seems to ordinary eyes to be a storm suddenly blown up from the coast, but to the eyes of a ninja it is something more.  
  
An invitation? Xi wonders as he watches from a treetop afar. Or do you simply prefer to fight in such weather?  
  
Yet it was an invitation he must accept. He knew who called up such a storm, a simple action for his opponent. Black sky or clear, I do not care, I will still kill you. Xi is resolved, and he advanced toward the center of that storm quickly.  
  
Farther away three pairs of eyes saw that storm form, and they knew they must hurry.  
  
For Xi the distance is not far, but he advances carefully. This is not intended to be a fair fight, and Xi would full well expect many traps or minions, and if not he would like the chance to attack with surprise. A single blow will be enough, if you give me the chance.  
  
The dragon ninja traverses from tree to tree, fully aware of those things ahead of him, his senses are attuned to the scent of the Dark Storm's chakra, a vile presence he recalls with perfect clarity, and is hunting.  
  
Then the trees break open onto a sparse hillside, with a few scraggly survivors of the last firestorm standing among crumbling shrubbery. So, it is to be here.  
  
Xi launches himself over the hillside, spinning slowly through the air like a diving bird, and then he sees her, standing atop a small boulder, waiting. She sees him, but makes no moves.  
  
Draci Xi lands some ten feet distant from the Dark Storm, on an exposed rock. She bows as he appears, and grants him a sickening smile.  
  
Xi returns neither gesture, but holds his hands, adorned by the Dragon's Claws, before him.  
  
"Ah, the grim avenger has come at last." The Dark Storm intones majestically as the clouds float by above, and the rain begins to fall. "You look the same as you did that day eight years ago, when we last clashed, though perhaps a bit older and more lined."  
  
Looking at her Xi notices that the Dark Storm looks exactly the same as before, a beautiful woman who could scarcely be more than twenty, even though her age is even greater than his own. It is not genjutsu, the hunter- nin mask would reveal such a simple trick, but something far more vile, and Xi does not rise to the mark.  
  
There is one thing Xi notices about the Dark Storm, and his eyes latch onto it, even as she follows his gaze. The forehead protector she wears to hold back her long midnight blue hair has a coarse line through the symbol of lightning, the mark of a true traitor.  
  
"This?" The Dark Storm taps it. "An souvenir from the Raikage. It is rather obstinate and won't come off, regardless of the forehead protector. Such a wasteful thing."  
  
Heh, a telling blow. Xi thinks. Not bad, soldier. "Do have anything actually important to say?" Xi asks finally.  
  
"To you?" The Dark Storm mimes looking puzzled for a moment. "Not really, I know better than to try and change the mind of such an obstinate man as yourself." She paused for a moment. "I wonder though, Xi, what is the point of this action of yours? Are you simply trying to annoy me?"  
  
Xi gave her a flat look.  
  
"You killed all my servants." The Dark Storm answered for him. "That makes everything so much more difficult. It will take longer to control this country now, but in the end it means nothing. I do not need them. So what is it you hope to accomplish here?"  
  
"You know my purpose very well." Xi replied.  
  
The Dark Storm's eyes narrowed, and she stared into Xi's own. "Well, it seems you are even more deluded than I thought. You honestly believe you can kill me." She giggled, a childish sound that was out of place within the ruthlessness of her gaze. "Foolish dragon ninja, there is not a ninja still living who could accomplish that."  
  
"What of your masters in the Akatsuki?" Xi asked.  
  
"One master only, Dragon ninja." The Dark Storm replied. "I stand second highest among that order, and though one may perhaps surpass me, even he could not destroy me. I have my own reasons for joining my plans to his."  
  
Xi gave the Dark Storm a scathing look. "Whatever you believe, I will kill you."  
  
He attacked.  
  
Black lightning spurted from the Dark Storm's fingertips, and she dashed aside Xi's attack. They flashed back and forth for a moment, no strikes reaching their targets.  
  
Then the Dark Storm flashed backwards. "You are stronger than I thought, far stronger, but it's not enough." The swords of lightning became raging glaives, stretching above and below her hands, as long as a man was tall, and they flashed about. The Dark Storm attacked, whirling toward Xi in a half spin that struck apart trees and set them ablaze.  
  
Xi ducked the assault and kicked up, sending the Dark Storm past him. He slashed his hands through seals. "Tail Lash!" His body flipped forward, and he slid along the ground without friction, held up by a razor thin layer of chakra, kunai held in his hands to cut open the veins of the legs.  
  
A wall of lightning flashed upward from the ground before him.  
  
Xi stabbed down, and flew into the air; he ripped shuriken free of his pouch and hurled them down in a spiral pattern at the Dark Storm.  
  
She blasted tongues of lightning from her every finger, striking the shuriken, causing them to glow white hot and flash back up at Xi.  
  
"Dragon Wind!" Xi blasted the tremendous surge of chakra back at her; sending the missiles back down, hot enough to melt stone from lightning and friction.  
  
The Dark Storm shot upward on a cascade of lightning, dodging the attack and landing some distance away.  
  
Xi came back down and stood upon a fallen tree trunk.  
  
"Impressive Draci Xi." The Dark Storm muttered, breathing normally even as Xi drew in heavy gasps of air. "You have tremendous focus, and are far more dangerous than anyone I've fought in a long time. You would have made the perfect assassin for any target but me."  
  
There was no response from the dragon ninja, except to dash aside and ready another attack.  
  
The Dark Storm came forward to meet him, her glaives raging, blocking all approaches.  
  
Xi spun forward, feeling the edge of that black lightning bite into him, but he had enough momentum to press forward, and though he felt the burning agony, gave no sign. His hands came up to strike the Dark Storm.  
  
"Ah, no." She remarked.  
  
Twin kunai moved of their own accord from her holster and slammed into Xi's side, just where he had been burned. He was stopped inches from her face, all momentum gone. Blood leaked slowly out of his side.  
  
"I thought you wouldn't try anything that stupid, don't you understand magnetism?" She asked questionably.  
  
"You are the one who doesn't understand." Xi gave her a grim half- smile, and the first drops of blood from the kunai punctures dripped onto the Dark Storm's leg. Xi's right hand formed a seal. "Dragon Blood no jutsu!" He hissed.  
  
The Dark Storm screamed, as the blood on her leg turned to virulent acid and ate into her flesh, and for the barest second her glaives of lightning vanished.  
  
Xi's hands remained in reach of her form, and the obstacles had suddenly been removed. "Lightning Element: Thousand Strikes of the Hailstorm!" His hands became a blur of moves, single strikes so fast they barely touched, leaving only a soft stinging pain, so fast the Dark Storm could chose no point to block, no place to put her lightning counters. Xi's hands raced all over her body, striking point after point.  
  
His foe was no inexperienced ninja; she recovered swiftly and struck back.  
Great gouts of lightning blasted from her hand and mouth, causing the Dark Storm's hair to fly up behind her like a living thing.  
  
The Dragon ninja was slammed backward, smashed hard into a burnt tree. He grunted in pain as the impact agitated the wounds in his side. For a moment he was bent forward by the pain.  
  
One second later Xi looked up to see the Dark Storm, and for the first time in eight years he truly smiled. "I've killed you."  
  
The Dark Storm cried out in agony as blood burst out everywhere on her body, leaking from the entirety of her skin.  
  
"I smashed every capillary on your body, you will bleed and die." Xi remarked with grim satisfaction.  
  
"Clever!" The Dark Storm roared through a bloody haze. "But not nearly enough. Restoration of the Black Storm's Caress!"  
  
The clouds blasted with lightning above, and all over the Dark Storm's body black lightning swarmed, her blood boiled and burned, but then everything was gone, and she was as before.  
  
"Foolish dragon ninja." She smiled at him. "I told you that no one could kill me. That was good, but too slow."  
  
Xi reeled back in horror and pain. He immediately moved to dodge, but it was too late, he had thought the fight finished.  
  
"Time to die!" The Dark Storm raged, and a storm of lightning encompassed her body, ready to cover any area Xi ran to. "You are not bad Draci Xi, but you are not able to beat me!"  
  
Annihilation rose up over Draci Xi, and he closed his eyes in shame. My best gambit, taking her strikes in return for my own, failed. Even if this continued I have already been defeated. He thought back in sadness. Everything was a waste, eight years of labor, and nothing has been accomplished. Faces flashed before his closed eyes, all those killed by the Dark Storm, and he thought in despair. I am sorry, but I cannot keep my promise.  
  
Lightning crackled over the hillside, a blast to kill everything before it.  
  
"Clawing whirlwind!" Blue chakra spun in through that gout of destruction, spinning forward to slam into the Dark Storm.  
  
"What!" She hissed, as lightning rose up to protect her, and send the attack splashing away.  
  
"Thunder and Lightning Strike!" The cry came from the side, and the Dark Storm blanketed the hill about her in a circle of black lightning, only to watch the attack descend from above.  
  
A shield of lightning materialized to block the kunai, only to be burst apart and be followed by the second stabbing in at her heart. Yet, despite the disruption of her defense, another lightning shield materialized to defend her vulnerabilities, and the attack was blocked. "Impossible!"  
  
It was not over. "Dragon Fang!" A hungry sword, clear and crystalline even beneath the black sky, shot in from the opposite side, vibrating with terrible killing power.  
  
A blade of solid lightning, black as the deepest depths of the sea, formed in the Dark Storm's hands and blocked it, deflecting the charge away.  
  
Xi looked up, and he saw Neji, Shiren, and Dar standing in a half circle around the Dark Storm. Shiren to the left, Dar to the right, and Neji stood between her and Xi.  
  
"What is this?" The Dark Storm hissed.  
  
"The end for you." Neji replied levelly. "I don't know how you managed to block those attacks, but you will not survive here."  
  
"No, Neji." Xi whispered from behind him. "It does not work that way."  
  
"Ha!" The Dark Storm howled. "Those were good tricks, but you are not ready to face me boy. I recognize you; you are the Hyuuga who dares to think he is a dragon ninja, Xi's little pawn. I know these others too, the wretches and outcasts the outcast who leads you has gathered together. You cannot oppose me, the ruler of Lightning."  
  
"Your plans end here." Neji said sternly. "Your comrade, Mehize Kizen, is already dead. We destroyed him, and we will destroy you as well."  
  
"So you killed Kizen." The Dark Storm did not appear at all surprised. "As I thought, he was nothing but a failure. Don't think that makes you ready to fight me boy."  
  
"I am as strong as Xi." Neji replied. "And together we three can defeat you."  
  
"There is strength and there is strength boy." The Dark Storm replied. "You may have one kind, but you do not have the other. I will kill you and teach you a lesson."  
  
I will finish this now. Neji decided. If anyone deserves this, it is you. The dragons brought us here, so they sanction this. Neji focused his chakra, bringing it behind his eyes. For an instant he closed them, and when he opened them again the Byakugan had blended with the red eyes of the dragon, created the fanged red lenses that bored fear past all boundaries. "All Seeing Eyes of the Heavens." That proclamation came forth in a voice not Neji's own, an ancient and lethal force.  
  
That red vision bored outward, projecting its terrible fear at the Dark Storm, Neji took on a look of grim satisfaction, and then he recoiled in absolute horror. The fear struck the Dark Storm, alien power to crush the mind and stop the heart, and then passed through her, doing nothing.  
  
"HAHAHA." The Dark Storm screamed in laughter, a sound that shook the skies and inflicted terror into the Dragon ninja who stood before her. "This? This is the power of the Hyuuga that I sought for so long? This is the best you can do?" She laughed once more. "Idiot boy! I am beyond fear! Look at me with those Hyuuga eyes, and see the idiocy of your ideals.  
  
Lightning burst from her hands, and Neji saw in horror the true nature of the Dark Storm.  
  
No seals. He recognized. She did not form seals, it was not that she made them so fast we could not follow, she did not make seals! She is not molding chakra into lightning, it is her chakra. That black lightning is her chakra? Neji looked deeper, and he saw something strange there. Just as he had seen in Naruto, there was a face within that chakra, a force that looked out at him. Yet this thing, a rumbling face of blackness filled with hatred and all too human contempt, did not merely look at him. It saw, and it howled in glee, and as it did so, its face became that of the Dark Storm. There is no demon sealed within her, Neji learned in shock and denial. She is a demon!  
  
"You're...you're not human." The words crumbled out of his mouth.  
  
"Of course not you fool!" She thundered. "I am beyond humanity, I am one with the storm itself! I am the essence of lightning!"  
  
"You talk too much." Xi was suddenly behind her, the Dragon's Claws moving into her flesh.  
  
Lightning flashed, and she was in the air, droplets of blood leaking from the beginnings of a slash in her back. The Dark Storm settled to the top of a tree. "How bothersome, you can still fight." Her face contorted in anger. "Very well, Draci Xi, for now your little followers have saved you, I have used up too much chakra to kill you all now, I did not plan on four. But know that when we clash next, you will all die."  
  
Then she was gone.  
  
Xi turned, searching, but he could see nothing. He slumped to the ground, holding his side. Swiftly he pulled forth bandages, and wrapped them about the wound.  
  
"Are you alright Xi?" Shiren asked, standing next to him.  
  
"I will be fine." Xi replied. "It is not too deep, within a day it will be gone." Xi turned and stared at Neji. "Why are you here?" He asked bitingly.  
  
"To aid you." Neji replied. "So that the dragon ninja stand together. We finished our mission in Waterfall."  
  
"This task is mine alone!" Xi snapped back. "You cannot help here."  
  
Neji looked away for a moment, wondering if the words were true, if after what he had seen from the Dark Storm they really could do nothing.  
  
"Even if that's true." Neji said slowly. "Even if we cannot help you, we are not going back. I am not your student, you cannot command me to leave, nor Shiren or Dar."  
  
The other two nodded sternly.  
  
"We killed sixty ninja to come here Xi." Neji told him coldly. "After that price, I will not let you walk toward death alone. Even if we cannot help, you have already tried yourself, and failed."  
  
"Do you realize what you are putting yourself against, Neji?" Xi asked coldly.  
  
"She is some form of demon, I saw it." Neji replied.  
  
"Not some form of demon." Xi snapped in return. "She bonded her soul with the essence of all the evils found in the storm. The Dark Storm is her only name, because the one she bore before is not the creature she is now. No lightning can harm her, and she contains limitless powers. She was by far the strongest ninja in Lightning when the war ended nine years ago, but she was not made Raikage because even then her villainy was obvious. She is not something you can expect to face and survive."  
  
"Xi." Shiren said. "We are still going with you."  
  
"Why?" Xi demanded.  
  
"Because we are dragon ninja, and so are you." She answered.  
  
Xi said nothing for a long time. "Fine." He replied at length. "She will fall back, but not so far. Between here and Lightning she waits. Tomorrow we shall go and face her. It will be the last time." 


	48. Dragon Ninja

Notice: I do not Naruto and make no claims on the copyright to its world or characters. However, this story features numerous original characters who belong to me, the most relevant being: Draci Xi, Kabure Gosain, Senirai Shiren, Kataishi Dar, Aburanki Kei, Mehize Kizen, The Raikage, Tonetero, The Dark Storm, and the various dragons, Sirachi, Wusashu, and others. Various ideas presented within this story, such as the Dragon Ninja, the Mizuho Bloodline, and so on, are also my personal creations.  
  
Author's Notes: So, the end has come, the final battle and the resolution of this whole story. Well, here it is, I won't say anything more. Please take the time to read the short epilogue and postscript to follow, and post a review if you can, I'd like to know just who made it to the end.  
  
Dragon Ninja  
  
Morning did not come the next day. The skies were covered by a black storm that pelted rain and crackled with thunder all night and day. It was dark as twilight from the moment Xi awoke all through the long walk they made.  
  
The four dragon ninja walked slowly through the ground of lightning. There was no hurry, Xi knew exactly where they were going, and the place the Dark Storm would meet her hunters.  
  
She is not without a sense of irony, so it will be in the same place as before, that place we fought eight years ago, the last time she faced four hunters. Xi could recall it perfectly, and so he made for that wooded clearing, a slow walk, taking the time to fully heal any damage. When the time came they would all be at full strength.  
  
Yet, what good does it do? Xi thought, looking at the three other dragon ninja who walked with him. Their minds and hearts are clean, they go forward to battle with no regrets, and expect, as most do, that they will be victorious. It will not be enough. Xi had felt the full power of the Dark Storm, had seen her shake off the attack Neji had wielded against her, a power he could not have hoped to match, a technique that could slay anyone, but was useless against this being they went to oppose. Only a single killing blow will work, but who could find that? She is all but invincible.  
  
A dark voice inside Xi offered a way, and as he walked he fingered something hidden beneath his flak jacket, carried always on his chest, below the statuette that was the Heart of the Dragon. A single scroll, small and black, crumpled with age, but bound tight and sealed. Four dragon artifacts, the scroll of summoning, the Heart of the Dragon, the Dragon's Claws, and this. Xi knew what the scroll was, Naravki had told him long ago. He knew what it contained within, a thing of darkness and evil beyond reckoning, a thing that had been bound there for hundreds of years, a demon without a name, called only The Corrupt. Naravki had said it was a thing of ultimate shame to the dragons, and ultimate destruction, but he knew nothing more. Yet, the sealing method was known. If unsealed, it would be bound to fulfill a request of the one who unsealed it. Naravki had not known, but he had believed all his life that the scroll had been sealed by the very first to become a dragon ninja.  
  
Xi fingered the scroll, recalling all the promises he had made, as he walked closer to the meeting with the Dark Storm. We cannot win, she is beyond any ninja, but I must fulfill that which I swore to do. I cannot fail my final mission.  
  
Eventually Xi took his hand from the thing, and considered it as he walked, but though he searched his soul, he came to no decision.  
  
At a time that might be said to be mid-afternoon had black clouds not covered the sky and blotted out the sun to create perpetual twilight they reached their destination.  
  
From the trees the four ninja descended on the clearing, looking for their enemy, only to find she was not there.  
  
Then the trees before them were slammed to the ground with terrible violence, as a massive creature descended from above, and in its hand stood the Dark Storm.  
  
It was gigantic, two hundred feet tall at least, and shaped vaguely like a man, but made of cloud, lightning, and thunder. It was black as night, and yet held a smoky energy and bold malevolence. Its eyes were red slashes of burning fire, and it had a great vortex of clouds for a mouth. The dragon ninja looked up at it in awe and dread.  
  
"Do you like my summons?" The Dark Storm laughed as she descended to stand before them. "You see, now I am prepared, I have called the very blackness of the storm to my side. Even if you manage to threaten me, you cannot fight."  
  
Xi reached under his flak jacket and pulled out the black scroll. His hand grasped the seal. There is no other way. He decided. I swore that I would kill her, no matter the cost.  
  
"Well." The Dark Storm looked at Xi with no small amusement. "You intend to use that against me?" She grimaced. "Do you dare, Draci Xi? Will you unleash the contents of that scroll upon the world just to kill me? You will unleash a demon of the ancient times to strike me down. FOOL!" She shouted with the crackle of thunder. "It will recognize me as its brother, this thing you call, and I shall cow it and we will ravage the world together. I will feed it your companions and your soul! Unleash this thing and doom not only yourself, but them as well, and all lightning and that which follows. Come Xi!" She cackled with mad glee. "Unseal the scroll and complete my purpose for me even as I am struck down."  
  
Xi held his thumb at the lip of that black scroll. She must be destroyed; there is no other way to do it.  
  
Neji, Shiren and Dar looked at Xi in confusion, and the shock was in their eyes, wondering what was happening, what the thing Xi held was.  
  
Xi could not see them, he stood before them, but he could feel their eyes on him. I am the hunter, it does not matter. The mission is the only concern. Xi resolved himself behind his white mask, but still those eyes looked at him, and Xi saw Neji's eyes stare at him, those inhuman white eyes, and in his mind they stretched to become the white and red lenses that saw through everything, the eyes of the heavens. Xi felt those eyes judging him, and he all but despaired. Why? He demanded of himself. I owe them nothing!  
  
"Because we are dragon ninja, and so are you." Shiren's words echoed in Xi in that moment, and he realized why they had come with him, these three children, his students. We are the dragon ninja; he remembered what he had learned long ago. Our path is the hardest of all, for we undertake to damn ourselves as killers. Why do we do this? Xi remembered, and he remembered the tears that had clouded his eyes when he had almost killed Neji, and why he had done that. He remembered and his hunter's resolution unraveled, only to be replaced by something else. We kill others to protect others. Sometimes the cruelest choice is necessary for the greatest good. That is the saying that had birthed the dragon ninja. That was the nature of their strength, the cold willingness to make that choice, to take that responsibility on themselves, and to wield the power that came from it.  
  
Promises of vengeance to the dead mean nothing. Xi saw as he looked at the Dark Storm. Such things created this creature before me, who sacrificed herself to destroy the Uchiha, and created the greatest evil Lightning has ever known, and to destroy her I was prepared to unleash an even greater one. I cannot do that, it is not the way. I will kill you for the sake of the living, Dark Storm.  
  
Xi reached up his right hand, as the Dark Storm looked on, and he grasped his mask with it, and took it from his face, flinging it to the ground.  
  
The four watchers gasped.  
  
Xi slammed his foot down upon the mask, breaking it apart. "I don't need that anymore!" He shouted. "Nor do I need this!" Xi threw the black scroll over his shoulder, to land in Neji's hands. Three more things followed it. "Neji, I give the heritage of the dragon ninja to you, the scroll of summons, the Heart of the Dragon, the Dragon's Claws, and the black scroll. Keep them well, and never allow that scroll to open, keep that evil from the world." Thus, Xi did as had been done in this same clearing eight years ago.  
  
"Xi!" The three dragon ninja behind him gasped as one.  
  
"Stop!" Xi ordered. His eyes focused on the Dark Storm. He put out his right arm, parallel to the ground, baring passage. "Only one can face her, and this fight is mine."  
  
"You are a fool Draci Xi!" The Dark Storm laughed. "How will you fight me without those powers? You are nothing more than a paltry fool who knows several tricks, you cannot stand against the Blackness of the Storm, nor can you fight me! I will make you watch while your companions feed my powers for your presumption!"  
  
"You will die!" Xi retorted. "So that all may live!" His eyes suddenly shifted, becoming the red on red of the dragon's eyes, and Xi felt a surge of power within him, and something else, a sense of unlocking, and without a single pause, the Dragon's Wrath was there, its power awakened instantly.  
  
Xi's hand blurred, and his feet thrummed with power.  
  
"Even that means nothing here!" The Dark Storm laughed, leaping into the hands of her waiting monster.  
  
Xi looked at the creature, and made a decision. My fight is with the Dark Storm, but I will not spare you either, monster. His hands moved, faster than the eye could follow, forming the perfect seals, calling on the chakra. "For eight years I have prepared for this Dark Storm! Learn the meaning of those years!" Claw, Fang, Gaze, Breath, Spirit, Dragon, and Circle. Xi's left hand came to his mouth, and blood flashed from it. His hands slammed to the ground with enough force to drive the soil inches downward. "I call all debts owed to me!" Xi demanded. "Dragon summoning no jutsu!"  
  
The black storm that hung in the air above was pierced by a brilliant shaft of light that blinded the eyes of all, and blasted apart the storm to bring crystal clear skies, the ground shook and split beneath Xi's hands, and the Black storm demon howled in anger.  
  
The sky was filled with a massive presence, a shining creature of gold, titanic and majestic, a T'ien Lung. He was three hundred feet long at least, with claws to slice great trees apart, and a maw to swallow a giant. His brilliant mane stretched back from his head a great distance, and his eyes proclaimed tremendous power and age.  
  
This was Izanagami, child of gods, eldest of dragons, and Lord of the Skies.  
  
"Demon corrupter!" The dragon roared. "Come forth and be cleansed from the world!" When the dragon spoke the trees bent and cracked, and the demon that carried the Dark Storm rose into the sky to face his eternal foe, dropping the ninja he carried to the ground.  
  
The Dark Storm stood in front of Draci Xi.  
  
"This is the end." Xi proclaimed, and he took his own simple nekode from his hips, and placed them on his hands.  
  
"I shall not allow this." The Dark Storm replied, and swords of black lightning emerged from her hands.  
  
The twin battles began.  
  
To the three who watched, the battles were almost impossible to follow. Above them the skies shook and powers mighty and ancient, two visions of the power of the sky, clashed and ravaged. For miles they could be seen, the war of powers like unto gods above. The claws and teeth of the dragon against the demon's fists of lightning, the fiery breath versus the stifling cloud. It was awesome and imperious, and the eyes of every ninja across the nation turned and saw in awe, seeing the fate of their Country of Lightning on display in the sky.  
  
Yet it was the smaller battle that mattered to the three dragon ninja who stood before that clearing.  
  
It was difficult to observe, the speed of Xi and the Dark Storm surpassed even Neji's eyes, and only moments of motion and blurs of energy could be seen to crackle about the clearing, while the calls of moves and the torment of pain carried clear to the ears of those who watched.  
  
"Rend!" Xi's nekode slashed through the lightning blades of the Dark Storm, to score a gash across her torso, but her energy burned him in return, and he took a slash along the face, burning and scoring, in payment.  
  
It continued, with dragon jutsus and black lightning illuminating the sky in power and chakra. Every movement by Xi was perfection itself, the flawless performance of a ninja at the absolute height of achievement. Watching him Neji saw the dragon in his movements, and Xi surpassed the grace of the heavenly lord above as he strove against his foe.  
  
Dark powers governed the Dark Storm, and she responded from every angle, a raging torrent of lightning and obliteration, countering every strike with pain and furry, animalistic darkness from before humanity knew shelter from the storm.  
  
A flash of the fight, Xi came in from below, out positioning the Dark Storm on the right side. "Back Rake!" His left foot cut across her body, punching holes in her arm, causing it to go limp.  
  
Another flash, whips of lightning reached out and bent Xi's left ankle past the point of breaking, but he did not slow.  
  
Again and again they saw, dragon jutsus flared, and lightning countered, black and consuming. Wounds multiplied, slashes and cuts, stabs and piercings, Xi bit into the Dark Storm's face, ripping free a chunk of her cheek, and she slashed long nails along his neck, burying them in his flesh.  
  
It went on and on, and Neji could see no end, the power of the fighters seemed not at all diminished. It could go on forever, like the eternal clash of feuding gods, locked in combat to the end of time, unable to reach a decision, but refusing to back down.  
  
But these warriors were all too human, though one be one with the dragon inside humans, and the other with the demonic darkness that waits there. The end would come.  
  
The battle above was suddenly decided, beyond anyone's expectation.  
  
Izanagami's jaws sank into the demon's neck and clamped down, refusing to let go even as lightning ravaged his body from the creature's hands. "Come," The dragon sounded in a voice that carried far across the miles. "I leave the world to my children, let us go to the next realm together monster!"  
  
There was a growl of demonic agony, and a dragon's roar of triumph, and then both were gone, in a flash that rained down rainbow motes of light across the lightning country.  
  
"Dragon's Breath no Jutsu!" Xi screamed, and a tremendous blast of lightning shot from his mouth, to strike not the Dark Storm, but a rock beneath her. Stone exploded, and a blast of sizzling shards ripped her skin and shredded it.  
  
A moment of advantage! Neji saw it.  
  
Xi attacked, his right hand's nekode had long since been broken, but two bloody fingers led the attack, power crackling about them as they aimed for the Dark Storm's forehead. "Dragon Fang!"  
  
A bolt of black lightning struck the Dark Storm from above, setting her ablaze, her long midnight hair instantly burned to cinders, but the force blasted Xi backwards to lie on the ground, forced to his knees.  
  
Standing there, fire blazing in her clothes, blood leaking from a dozen wounds, her right arm useless, the Dark Storm summoned a ball of lightning to her fingertips in her left hand. "I win." She wheezed. "I will take the life of one of you and from your power I will be restored. Then nothing will be able to stop me."  
  
Neji moved to act, but Xi stood in front of him, his own wounds terrible, his body wracked and savaged, but he held up his right arm, baring the way. "Only one can face her Neji, don't interfere."  
  
"You have failed Xi, all your dragon jutsus and your four lightning jutsus, all your tricks and techniques and all your power, and you have not killed me." The Dark Storm smiled her hellish grin beneath the blood that leaked down her face. "I told you no ninja could kill me."  
  
Xi looked at the Dark Storm, and he could find no force to move, his energy was spent, his powers were all but gone, but he was not defeated. He turned his head and smiled at Neji. "My thanks." He whispered, and then turned back to the Dark Storm. Xi's eyes closed softly and he spoke. "You are a fool, have you forgotten? I know FIVE Lightning jutsus!"  
  
Her face bloody and torn, cast into a demonic form, there was still enough humanity left for a look of absolute terror to break out on her face. "That is impossible!" She screamed.  
  
Xi struck his left hand straight forward, parallel to the bloody ground beneath him, his fingers completely extended. He reached out with his right hand and grasped the arm at the elbow. "Stroke of Lightning no Jutsu!" He said slowly and carefully, but with all his will.  
  
A bolt of lightning, pure white and blinding as the sun, came down from the clear sky to strike Draci Xi, and Neji, standing behind him, felt nothing, as all its power flowed into Xi's body, every last ounce of that energy, the power of the sky unleashed, it suddenly became Xi's.  
  
Xi moved, and he was behind the Dark Storm, who tried to dodge, but she moved at a speed that was limited, and Xi moved as the lightning, without gap in time, he stepped and was there, no reaction could function to stop him. His hands came in behind the Dark Storm's neck, and there were suddenly kunai there.  
  
The blades slashed in and met flesh, and cut deep, slashing arteries and veins, cutting down to bone, and leaving the Dark Storm's dead body to fall forward into the bloody earth.  
  
"Xi!" The three dragon ninja called as one, as Xi fell behind her, the surface of his body burned away utterly, leaving the blackened remains of a man still burning away to nothing.  
  
Neji, Shiren, and Dar were around Xi in an instant, searching for something they could do, anything, but it was obvious that there was nothing.  
  
Xi's body was burning from the inside out from the force he had absorbed. Soon he would be gone.  
  
Turning his head Xi looked up through burned away eyes at his students, for though the organs were gone with the power of lightning in him he could still see. "Draci Neji, Draci Shiren, Draci Dar." He said the words slowly. "I have completed my mission." Draci Xi spoke his last words.  
  
Tears in his eyes Neji took his hands away from the crumbling body, and stood, Shiren and Dar followed the motion.  
  
Neji placed his right hand over his chest, forming a fist, and tears flowed down his cheeks as the three dragon ninja watched their teacher crumble to dust before them, his own pyre set and completed, leaving nothing behind.  
  
As they watched the dusty flakes were caught by the wind and rose high into the sky to join with the rainbow motes of dragon light and ascend to the heavens above.  
  
Elsewhere the body of the Dark Storm rotted away to nothing in moments, leaving no legacy at all.  
  
Neji sank to the ground, drained completely, his thoughts empty. Then something caught his eye, a white flash in this brown and bloody mess. His head turned, and he saw the pieces of Xi's mask.  
  
Slowly Neji stood and walked over to it, the half mask had been stomped upon by Xi, breaking the porcelain into pieces. There were four.  
  
Picking up the pieces Neji felt them in his hands, still sharp, and he felt a power in them, and a memory. Xi would not want us to lie here uselessly. Neji knew immediately. We are the dragon ninja; we must carry on the work he began.  
  
"Shiren, Dar." Neji motioned them over, the other two dragon ninja slowly detached from the ground and walked over to meet Neji's tired form. Neji put out his hand, and there he held the four pieces of Xi's mask. "Each of us should carry one, to remember and guide us."  
  
Dar reached out and took the piece the represented the base of the mask, Shiren the top center, and Neji took the top in his right hand.  
  
"There are four pieces." Dar remarked. "We are only three."  
  
"Likewise there are four dragon artifacts." Neji said slowly, holding up the four things Xi had thrown to him before. "I believe Xi meant for there to be four of us in time, a platoon of Dragon Ninja, just as we were when he was with us." Neji looked at his comrades. "No one ninja should hold all of these. I will keep the summoning scroll." Neji said, and placed in under his shirt. "Xi said it would pass to me when he was gone." Neji recalled with tears in his eyes. He turned to Shiren. "Shiren, I give you the heart of the dragon." He held out the sinuous red statuette. "Because you are the heart behind us, and have never once lost hope and energy." He turned to Dar. "I will give you the black scroll, since you have already mastered one hidden evil, and have the strength to hold another." Shiren and Dar took the artifacts, and placed them within their own ninja garb, carefully tucked away. "I will hold the Dragon's Claws for now, but they belong to another, whomever is to be the fourth in our fellowship."  
  
"What do we do now?" Dar asked after a moment's pause. "Draci Xi held us together, but we are from different villages, can we remain as a group?"  
  
Neji looked at the piece of Xi's mask. "We shall stay together." He answered. "I am not leaving Shiren's side." Shiren nodded her support, and her eyes carried far more. "And I want you to continue with us Dar, if you would."  
  
"I would, but what if I am commanded elsewhere?" The stone ninja requested.  
"We will be bound to no village." Shiren told him. "And to them all. She held up the piece of Xi's mask. "Missing-nins are criminals before all, we will hunt them. It is the task of the dragon ninja, the work Xi began, and left to us to finish."  
  
Neji and Dar slowly nodded. "So it will be." Neji replied. "For now though, we must wait here a while."  
  
The remainder of the afternoon passed in slow silence, and the three dragon ninja gradually looked at their grief and remembered, slowly working past it, strengthening their bonds to each other, and honoring the memory of the ninja who had been their leader, and the truest representative of their way.  
  
In the morning Kabure Gosain found them.  
  
The chuunin led a large group of lightning ninja, armed for war. They were forty at least, though Neji did not bother to count. They swept cautiously onto the battlefield, and then stopped in awe at what they saw.  
  
Gosain approached the three dragon ninja, who stood to meet him.  
  
"What happened?" Gosain asked, suspicion and sadness in his eyes.  
  
"It ended." Neji answered him. "Draci Xi slew the Dark Storm at the cost of his own life."  
  
"I see." Gosain replied, and held back his emotions. "Then the war is over!" He called to his companions. "We are finally free of that demon!"  
  
The lightning ninja broke out into cheers, but Gosain remained grim.  
  
"What will you do Gosain?" Neji asked him over the joyous shouts and acclamations.  
  
"I will take them back to Cloud." He answered. "We will have to find a new Raikage, if there is anyone able to assume the position, perhaps the head of Clan Heposiri, who was not in the village when the Dark Storm struck. I will go back to leading missions for genin, and we will try to rebuild our village." Gosain looked at Neji, Shiren, and Dar. "What will you do?"  
  
"Go to Cloud with you, for now." Shiren said. "We should tell the tale of what happened here to everyone, how the Skies themselves reprimanded the Dark Storm. Then we will travel to all the countries, to hunt down the missing-nins who endanger the peace."  
  
"I see," Gosain replied. "It will probably be welcome. Our own hunter- nins are among the dead, or so I've been told. It will be a long time before we are strong again. Perhaps it will be until a true leader rises to the rank of Raikage."  
  
There is more strength in Lightning than you believe, Gosain. Neji thought, looking at his former teammate. He saw the looks the other ninja, many older than Gosain, gave him. You are a leader already, you will help lightning recover, it will become strong again soon enough.  
  
That night, as they rested in the ravaged Cloud Village, Neji laid his head next to Shiren, while Dar sat by the door. "I wonder, how shall we find a fourth dragon ninja, it was Xi who found all of us?"  
  
"There are things we share," Shiren replied. "It will be someone like that."  
  
"Perhaps, there is someone like that already." Dar remarked. "Another who stands on the edge, and who understands the nature of our path."  
  
The three dragon ninja shared a thought. Perhaps. The future is waiting to be made. 


	49. Epilogue and Postscript

Epilogue  
  
Four ninja high upon a hilltop, each wearing the insignia of a different country, but united. They are all four dragon ninja, united as one.  
  
Each carries the mask of a hunter-nin, but they do not wear them over their faces. Instead the masks hang at their hips, over their right legs, a tribute to the one who discovered them all.  
  
Tall and longhaired, a young man with white eyes stands before them all. He looks at his companions, one his wife, the others his dearest friends, and for a moment thinks back, and remembers, as he always does before a mission, the man who picked him up in the woods one day as he lay dying, and who set his life on its true path.  
  
The others have their own stories, but they each can recall that face, and the presence of the ninja named Draci Xi, the dragon ninja who restored his kind to the world.  
  
Fanfiction Postscript  
  
It is currently 9:50 pm on June 5, 2004, and I have completed Behind Killer's Eyes (yes, the actual writing of the story was finished two weeks ago today). Frankly I don't believe it, I can't properly imagine that I just wrote four or five chapters (I can't really sort it out now) today alone, in a period of not more than eleven hours no less, and I was not writing continuously. Anyway, now that it's done, I feel like taking a moment to reflect on everything as it sits fresh in my mind. From where this story went, to some of the things that happened in it and so on, so I can at least explain to myself the origin of 176,076 words of written material, filling 296 pages of single spaced Microsoft Word document, and amassing more than a Megabyte in size. I'm not trying to brag by listing those; it just seems so ridiculously immense that it needs some quantification.  
  
It's funny, I never originally wanted to write a Naruto fanfiction, I try to avoid fanfiction in general, since I dislike usurping the work of others and writing material within their own ideas. However, this thing began, and once it started I couldn't stop it. This is I believe the only fictional piece I've worked on since February, which is for me a staggering period to work on only one story.  
  
This story began with something that actually never takes place within its pages. In many ways it began with the idea of Rend, which grew out of certain fights in the manga, including Kabuto's fight with Tsunade. If you could make a scalpel of chakra, why not blades, at least that was my rationalization, and I thought up the idea. Of course, I needed a ninja who could use this technique, even if only in my mind, and that slowly crystallized into the character of Draci Xi. I made him a dragon ninja because I had been recently thinking about dragons in other stuff I was doing, and suddenly I had created a ninja for the Naruto universe, even if only in my mind.  
  
This led, of course, to Xi emerging at various points in the Naruto storyline, most particularly, I ran through a mental scenario of him standing up during the attack on the exam stadium and offering to fight beside Kakashi. Of course, being the person I am, I needed a reason for him to be there, and why he did that, even as he emerged as a very powerful character who unleashed serious killing destruction. I decided then that dragon ninja collect debt, and Xi intervened because the Leaf would owe him.  
  
From there I learned more about this character I had created, including where he came from, the relatively unknown hidden village of lightning, who would have had reason to have a spy at the chuunin exam since none of them were participating, and some of his moves, like the lightning swords and thunder and lightning strike. I had a lot of ideas for Xi, and at about this point I was looking at FF.net and seeing the Naruto fanfiction there. Frankly I thought most of it was ridiculous, and that I could easily do better, even if I didn't want to, and Xi, of course, was the perfect vehicle for that.  
  
Then I read manga chapter 197, and Neji died, or at least appeared to do so (I seem to have managed to finish the story before Kishimoto decides to inform his readers). Now, I have always liked Neji's character, I believe that the conflict between Neji, Hinata, and Naruto is the absolute best part of the series so far revealed, the most impacting and truly enlightening piece, with real character change that wasn't at all cheesy. I also thought, if this rend move is so complicated, Neji, with his ability to see chakra, makes the perfect candidate. And so the story was born.  
  
Originally I had little in the way of a plan, aside from Xi saving Neji and training him as a Dragon ninja, but by the time a few chapters were written I had a lot more planned out. I don't usually do that sort of thing, but I actually went through and mapped out all the key events as I envisioned them at that point, and the countries I wanted to use. This was all based of a rudimentary understanding of what Xi's past was like and what characters I wanted. It was mostly cause and effect based, Neji needed companions so he acquired some to go to the chuunin exam, I needed a major villain so I placed that person to blame for Xi's eight years on the road, things like that. Many of those events have remained true during the whole story, such as Shiren's kidnapping and Dar's sword turning on him, but others emerged on their own, as did certain characters.  
  
Really the characters are the most interesting part, and I'm going to go through a number of the important ones, and give my thoughts on them, how they came into the story, and how they changed.  
  
Draci Xi: Xi is, obviously, the center of the whole story, a complex man with a haunted past that gradually became far more serious as the tale evolved. He was the dragon ninja, and was archetypical, supposed to be a thing more than an individual. He was powerful, but not invincible, and he was always unfeeling and mysterious. Xi was a really interesting character I think, a man struggling to fight back against a world that almost completely opposed him, and with the willpower to actually manage it. He interacted so well with Neji I couldn't believe it at times, mostly it's because they are in many ways very similar, but Xi remains a character I am quite proud of, someone I believe was suitable to carry his half of the protagonist role.  
  
Hyuuga/Draci Neji: The only actual character from existing Naruto of any true importance in this story, Neji is the centerpiece of the story, and obviously, his choices influence everything. The title, Behind Killer's Eyes, represents the feelings of both him and Xi, what happens behind the eyes of a just killer, how does that person live, what sort of choices do they make, how do they reconcile themselves, and ultimately accept what they are, and in this particular case, what they have chosen to be. As I've said before I almost certainly wouldn't have used Neji at all, and probably not have written a fanfic in the first place if Neji's "death" in the manga hadn't offered me such a perfect way to do it. That was the avenue that began the long journey, from Neji's status as a troubled genin, to an extraordinary dragon ninja. I guess this is his story, and I hope I did justice to his character.  
  
Senirai/Draci Shiren: From the beginning I wanted to have a romantic element to this story, since I cannot truly publish the fanfic, I wanted to use it as a chance to practice a real and believable fantasy romance. Shiren is the character I chose for this purpose. In many ways she proxies TenTen (both are female ranged specialists), who I did not use because it would have been difficult to rationalize and I didn't want to take another character. Creating Shiren was very hard work, since as a guy female characters are always more difficult for me than males. Doing the romance was a serious challenges as well, both in making it believable and avoiding falling into one of Naruto's great pitfalls, the marginal status of female characters. The series and manga has only two effective female characters, Tsunade and Temari, the others are constantly messing up or being beaten by male counterparts. Even Tsunade often comes off as ridiculous. I had to try to make Shiren into a strong, but not abrasive or overly aggressive character. I believe I have succeeded, which is perhaps the one thing I'm most proud of in this story. Shiren's romance with Neji seems to me appropriately adolescent, tentative, hesitant, and brought out in crises, and Shiren contributes fairly to the group, even defeating Neji in the chuunin exam, and handling herself very well when captured (originally Neji would have simply rescued her, thankfully I was able to change that).  
  
Kabure Gosain: Of all the characters who I knew would originally be part of the story, it is perhaps Gosain who changed the most in the writing, becoming a far greater part of the story and a far better ninja than I originally envisioned. In the initial plan he failed in the final part of the chuunin exam and went home as a genin, leaving the story forever. However, his tale as a veteran ninja who had sloughed along through such hardship was very compelling to me, and his personality came into its own without me really trying, so his role expanded. He became a chuunin, and then even got his own chapters after the exam, becoming only the third character to have a chapter devoted entirely to his viewpoint. At the end of tale it's hinted that Gosain might even rise to become Raikage, something the character earned himself as I wrote him, and that I never planned. I find all of this really cool, since it means the story has life of its own.  
  
Kataishi/Draci Dar: Dar was intended from the very start to take over for Gosain post exam and become the third dragon ninja student. However, when I was writing the story, it took a tremendous amount of time to get to the point where Dar became a part of it. I actually introduced him quite early by having him talk with Xi during the exam tournament. Dar's role was always meant to be supportive, but it was probably less than originally envisioned, but that's okay. His presence is enduring and legitimate, especially considering his late entry, and though I downplayed his personal struggle, it was essential to have him there for so many things that happened. Dar is in many ways simpler than the other characters, but this is mostly a sign of his maturity, he's just already worked much of it out.  
  
Aburanki Kei: Of all the characters in this story, Kei is the most surprising. I picked her name randomly off a list of random Japanese names when I had to come up with all the team members for the chuunin exam. She was never really intended to do anything more than lose to Tonetero in an impressive way, yet, in that chapter between fights I inserted a relatively random event (purely because I wanted the chapter to be longer), Kei's request to Shiren that she be avenged. From there Kei became a real character. Her existence solved a real puzzle for me, in that I was able to have Shiren sort of rescue herself because Kei was present, and I think she highlights how difficult the times are for more ordinary ninja. In case you haven't guessed, I rewarded Kei at the end, mostly because I wanted to. She is the fourth dragon ninja of the platoon during the epilogue.  
  
Raikage: The Raikage has no name, which caused me some trouble since he was always referred to by title ('the' or no 'the'). His not having a name is quite deliberate, since he's supposed to be just another soldier. His character did pretty much exactly what I wanted it to, and he's more of a literary device than a person in many ways, but he got his licks in, and he helped expand upon Gosain's character, which is perhaps more important. Raikage resonates the Lightning village I tried to create, a village that, along with the picture of Stone Village and Waterfall Village, added to the Naruto world as a whole.  
  
Now then, how about the villains:  
  
For most of the course of this story there is no distinctive antagonist, no specific enemy, and though I was dropping hints throughout, the true identity of the enemies doesn't emerge until after the chuunin exam. I used the Akatsuki because spawning up additional s-ranked criminals would be ridiculous (the world can only contain so many before stability becomes unreasonable), and I figure that Naruto won't be able to cover them all.  
  
Tonetero: The mad grass ninja is definitely my Gaara, except he's totally irredeemable. While exactly how he is created isn't something I've decided, I just like the idea of a ninja covered in thorns who wields them against his enemies. Shiren got to kill him early on, but I was able to bring him back from the dead (something I think really ought to happen to more fantasy villains, considering its ease in a fantasy world) and make him entirely more villainous. I suppose I wouldn't be able to call myself 'Mechalich' if I didn't stick the undead in somewhere. Anyway, Tonetero is not a very deep villain, he's more of an obstacle, and that's not really the best, but it seems to work out anyway.  
  
Mehize Kizen: The Akatsuki from sand really didn't come into being until minutes before I was writing the chapter in which he showed up. I think I wanted him to be a waterfall ninja for a while, but then picked sand randomly. He's really a weak antagonist and I'm not very proud of him, his most significant action is probably resurrecting Tonetero. Neji and company defeats him quite easily. However, I just couldn't do much with him, by the time I created him I was too eager to get to the Dark Storm.  
  
The Dark Storm: Ah, the superbitch, the villain I thought up long ago and who evolved into something I hope was appropriately evil. She needs to be, having killed two Raikages, started two civil wars, and killed all of Xi's former comrades. I had her planned from the very first references to a She much earlier in the story. The Dark Storm is somewhat insane, but she's serious enough to converse with her opponents and cause them to question their actions. Her political schemes mostly happen without her present, but I thought they were pretty decent. This villain was very deliberately a woman, I decided on that before I knew anything else about her. Again, this was mostly because I feel Naruto needs more powerful female characters, and I wanted to portray an evil woman who wasn't a seductress. It's her existence that truly tests Xi and reveals again the true purpose of the Dragon ninja, she also places the entire story within a larger context in the Naruto world, which I envision as the Akatsuki gradually trying to destroy all the strong nations so they can seize rulership from the remnants. The fights with her aren't as cool written as I imagined them (I don't think they possibly could have been) but I tried desperately to make them work.  
  
So, in the final analysis I'm generally happy with how this story worked out, it could be a whole lot better, but it's meant to be a fun action/adventure, not a truly serious work. Some of the characters really surprised me and turned out really well, some not so much, but I think the story fits well into the Naruto universe and that's what I was hoping for.  
  
My especial thanks to all my readers, and particularly those people who reviewed this story, notably: Silver Dragonfly, Night-Owl123, orlha, Daniel of Lorien, hattuteline, Uchiha Kumiko, Do as Infinity, X2Darklord, and all others who took a moment to review. It wasn't a lot of people, but considering how many of the conventions of Naruto fanfiction this tale breaks I can understand. Thanks for sticking with me.  
  
There will not be a sequel to this story, I'm sorry if that disappoints anyone. Likewise, don't expect anymore fanfiction (Naruto or otherwise) from me in the near future. Honestly though, even if I wanted to there's nowhere to go at the end of the story, the dragon ninja are just too powerful (think about how Itachi and Kisame might fair against them for a second and you'll get the idea) so I couldn't write anything reasonable. However, for anyone who liked this story and is interested in something else by me, I have a novel that's also about ninja set in my own universe. It's called The Diamond Swords, and while shorter than this tale, is probably at least ten times better (I'm quite serious). It's not online so that maybe I can someday publish it, but anyone who's interested should email (tolashlyahoo.com) me and I'll send you a copy. Otherwise, I'm online in various places regularly, and I use the same name everywhere, so I'm not difficult to track down.  
  
Thanks for reading Behind Killer's Eyes,  
  
-Daniel Kinicki, Mechalich 


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